Hey, not really sure how to start this post.. Sorry it's a little long, I'll put cliffs and question at the bottom.

Started learning poker (PLO) at the start of the year and got heavily into the theory and strategy side of it, with not much application of that strategy at the tables, basically a ton of off the table work for almost 4 months.

I started gradually transitioning more of my time to playing than studying to reinforce everything I'd learnt and put together as a general strategy, then a close family member got sick and everything poker related got put on hold, mainly due to anxiety and worry which made it hard to focus on anything, and it also zapped my energy and motivation.

During that time I also lost most of my theory and strategy notes that I'd built up, which was like my personal blueprint to how I approached the game, and continued to build on to constantly improve at the game.

Fast forward to now (about 5months later) and I'm struggling to piece back together what I knew and my game is super bad, I'm just button clicking and praying like a total noob, lol. I guess all the anxiety, worry and doing nothing to improve or maintain my game wiped the sheet clean, as well as not reinforcing what I had learnt off the tables at the tables when I was growing.

Just playing at the tables and picking things up that way isn't working out for me, my thoughts are just totally scrambled on what to do, and I can't read through my "blueprint" because it's gone, so I'm really disheartened and not sure where to start again.

Cliffs:
-Got into PLO at the start of the year
-Put in alot of time off the tables
-Put in little time at the tables
-Started transitioning into playing more than studying
-Family member got sick
-Stopped playing and studying for 5months
-Did nothing to improve or maintain what I learnt for 5months
-Healthy diet of anxiety and worry for 5 months
-Lost most of my notes
-Struggling to get back into piecing my game back together

Questions:
So has anybody gone through similar, and if so, what did you do to piece your game back together and get back into it? Did you start from scratch? How did you plan it out? And did you quickly pick things up again once you got over the bump similar to what I'm describing?

Thanks for reading through.

I think you need to tackle this problem on 2 fronts.

Front 1) improve memory.

Add some simple cardio to your daily routine and do it with discipline. Eat healthier / sleep better. Tons of info online for this.

Front 2) start from scratch

Dont worry about what's lost. Its gone man. Its in the past. You can start clean and in late 2017 some of the most advanced theory evar is one amazon purchase away. Janda's new book would probably be a great start as i find "theory" much easier to slip back into than "mechanics"...if that makes sense.

Then put in volume. Thats where the mechanics come from.

I go through breaks and have this same issue in live poker as I have a pretty poor memory myself. I feel like i dont even remember what bet sizes i used a year ago and start from scratch...but to learn anew each time isnt a bad thing.

There is a chinese proverb that i like that applies here:

The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is today

I worry a bit about how much you really absorbed if studying for 4 months before really playing. It is one thing to be reading along and think, "yeah, I'd do the same thing as the author." It is another at the table with no help and come up with the same solution in a few seconds.

This time I read a little bit, then play at the lowest stakes possible. Pick up two concepts, then practice them at the table until it feels natural and automatic. Then move on to the next ones. You don't have play 10,000 hands or anything ridiculous, but you want your decision making to be crisp and solid.

Front 1) I got back into exercising and eating healthy after reading studies that showed exercise stimulates the birth of new neurons and protects those that are newly created, which I thought was really cool, and still do. I will definitely look into some other ways of improving memory though, and probably start doing an intense cardio session every morning to start my day.

Front 2) I'll check out janda's book, a podcast he was on some time ago (forget who it was with now) had a big "aha" effect on me when it came to thinking about ranges(thanks for bringing up his name, i'm now going to go back and listen to if I can find it!).. And it makes sense what you're saying.

Thanks for your post, it was helpful and encouraging to know others have bounced back. I'm going to forget about trying to piece things back together as it was, and like you said, start from a blank canvas, start out with some theory, hit the tables and work on applying a couple of concepts at a time as Venice10 suggested.

Yeh, that's a fair statement. Iirc I struggled a lot with making decisions in a few seconds when playing a rare session back then, but off the table I could go into some depth on the hand on my own when I had more time, but obviously you don't get that at the tables.

I really like the simplistic approach of taking a couple of concepts to the table and practicing them until they are solidly ingrained into my decision making.

Thanks for both of your posts, they are really all I need to hear. I was seeing all kinds of complicated angles to getting started again, but you've both laid it out nice and simply for me to get started again.