procrastinator
Kwon-Tom Obsessive
Puzzles: 1083
Best Total: 12m 56s | Posted - 2007.02.24 17:49:06
A sad extension to this thread tonight. This would have been my first drunken sub-4 time, but I double-clicked and left an x where I'd intended a line, then took quite some time to spot my mistake. As it is, I imagine Brian will beat this time when he gets around to it, so I've probably fallen just short of Best Drunk Time Ever. Maybe I can claim Best Drunk Weekend Time?
In the interests of research: I think the five pints of ale have diluted my focus somewhat, making me more inclined to wander away from the area I'm currently working on and retrain on more likely-looking areas of the board. (Go-players call this "tenuki") This is an important strategic concept - particularly on weekend puzzles - that often goes out the window when my mental state is affected by the adrenaline of a live puzzle.
Even sober, I seem to do better when I tell myself to slow down and relax at the start of a puzzle, sometimes because I've been too inconsistent recently, sometimes because I make a bad start and need to calm down. Most times that I've reached a new milestone I've started slowly but reached a point very early where I've forced myself to take a breath and clear my head. I suppose this brings on sam's "Zen trance". But if I try that before I start the puzzle, I lose it in the first flush of battle-heat. |
