Sorry, I read this thread a couple times before posting because I've been too zonked to make a post, but fear no more!
I have found this model very helpful in the past month, it has turned me from a losing player to a winning player and I've finally gained the confidence and bankroll to move up to NL5.
I will explain to you how I usually spend my time when it comes to poker. I first make sure that I create a separate word document each day where I track my progress and use it to evaluate my sessions and individual hands.
Preparation
I make sure that I study at least a little bit everyday, you can't playing good poker without a strong grasp on the fundamentals and theory behind choosing each action.
When preparing for my actual poker session, I create a list of achievable goals which I want to achieve for this session. I create these goals to help try to combat my greatest weaknesses and use previous evaluations or analysis to see where these areas are.
This may include, being sure to keep distractions away from my work area, trying to implement new strategy or just not making a common mistake of mine (eg. not 4-betting lightly).
For a lot of the month, I have been meditating for roughly 10 minutes before playing but have also had great success with listening to a favourite song beforehand. I've stopped meditating as much now, but I'd like to still continue with it when I feel that I've not as focused as I should be.
I then read over my most recent notes so these concepts are fresh in my brain, before finally re-reading my list of goals and then actually playing. This may seem like overkill, but this process can be done in less than 15 minutes (if your not meditating) and I've got to say the results are generally a lot better when I prepare well beforehand.
Performance
When playing, I use a notepad to write down any mistakes I realise or to note anything which I am pleased about (eg. made a good fold instead of 4-bet light). I also mark any interesting or tricky hands using the feature in PokerTracker.
Evaluation
When I finish, I use my notepad and goal list to help evaluate my session, being sure to write positive, negative and neutral comments. I then right a short summary, trying to focus on what I think is most important as well as what I think I have learnt, if anything, from this session.
Analysis
Before evaluating new hands, I check the forums for the judges comments on hands which I posted yesterday. I make sure I totally understand the thought processes on these hands before evaluating my most recent session.
I evaluate my hands after a break which is sometimes 15 minutes, sometimes a day but I think it's best to leave a longer period of time when analysing your session as you can see things in a slightly different perspective. I pick the most difficult hands to evaluate first, using the material available to me to decide what action has the greatest EV on every street. Any hands which I find I am unsure about the correct play, I post on the hand evaluation forums. Also, I try to write what I have gained from evaluating every hand, eg. need to focus more on pot control with weak top pairs.
Conclusion
As with any process, you have to fine-tune it along the way. It's taken me nearly a month to get it to exactly how I want it but everyday I look for new ways to improve my processes, whether it be thought processes or my work process.
Overall, the process model is great as it provides me with a good structure to tackle poker with. I spend roughly 1/3 of my time studying/revising content, a 1/3 playing poker and 1/3 doing post-game analysis such as hand evaluations. It's great because every night I can do to sleep knowing that I have improved from the day before.
