Productivity Secrets for Sports Bettors: Part 1

If you first got into sports betting as a casual gambler, you can remember the days when it was all fun and no work.  If you are starting to get serious about it, though, you may feel overwhelmed by the amount of work involved in betting for a living, especially when you are still at the start of the learning curve.  For many bettors, time management can be the greatest challenge in betting!  You may especially struggle if you still work a 9-5 day job—and odds are you do.  Here are some helpful productivity tips and tricks to manage your time and become a better sports bettor.

1. Prioritize your to-do list.

Having a massive to-do list can actually hinder productivity rather than assist you if the list is not prioritized in a helpful fashion.  It is tempting to put easy tasks on top of the list, even if they are less urgent or important, which can actually distract you from other more important tasks.  And some people come up with redundant tasks to unconsciously hold themselves back and sabotage their own success.  As an example, if you have a hundred books to read on sports gambling and have those all prioritized above betting on paper, you are probably holding yourself back.  You do need to do a fair amount of research to get started, but not that much.  Much of learning takes place by doing, and you can only avoid it so long before you need to take the plunge.

2. Create a don’t list.

This follows off of the previous productivity tip.  Are there things you do each day which distract you from what you really need to be doing?  Make a list of things to not do each day, and post it right where you can see it at a glance.  Maybe you will catch yourself the next time you start playing Farmville on Facebook instead of focusing on your sports betting strategies. 

3. Know when to take a break.

The key to productivity isn’t to work constantly and try to get everything done in one fell swoop.  Research shows that if you take five minutes off every half hour or so, you will probably stay more productive than if you just continue to work and work and work without pause.  Of course, a lot depends on your individual personality, so you will want to experiment and see what works best to keep you focused and functioning at your best.  If you have a hard time with this, think of it this way: taking a break is still working, in a way.  You may be switching your mind off of the task at hand, but you are doing exactly what you need to in order to proceed at your best. 

All of these tips will help you to succeed as you climb that learning curve toward sports betting success.  Stay tuned for part 2, where we will share even more tips for becoming a more productive sports gambler!