I notice that often times when i start my session my decisions dont come as easily as they do when im a few hours in which i think is pretty standard. I was wondering what you guys have found the most effective for getting your brain into the poker mindset. Is it as simple as just reviewing some hands from your previous session and maybe playing for 20 minutes at a lower stake?

I don't, I will say I make sure I've eaten, showered, had coffee etc. before I start a session. Bad idea to get into it hungry or half asleep.

Good question. In Tender's book The Mental Game of Poker he advocates that you should have a warm up routine, and if you don't, the first 15 minutes of your session will your warmup routine. Writing in a journal and playing StarCraft II (a highly complicated strategic video game) are two ways that I have attempted to warm up.

I usually analyse some hands from the previous day, or spend half an hour on 2+2 (in the microstakes forum for instance) looking at hand histories. Sometimes my brain isn't working properly (especially if it's early and my coffee hasn't kicked in) and the HHs look like a foreign language, so I know it's inadvisable to play. After thinking/writing about a couple of hands for a few minutes, I've usually got my "poker brain" on the right track and I'm ready to play.
Going directly from something unrelated to being dealt in is generally a bad idea I think. I wouldn't compete in a sports event without doing some "warm-up exercises" (including psyching myself up mentally) first, and I think poker is similar. You need to get in the right frame of mind (and to have eliminated various distractions) before you fire up the client.

As a pro gambooler I had a specific "pregame" routine that got me into the proper mindset. My ritual would me geared up so that I was ready to rock and roll as soon as I sat down at the table. I would achieve laser like focus from the git go. It aint rocket science but I am honestly shocked at the number of players who I have talked to that take poker quite seriously that do not do this. Definitely a leak imo

Thanks Arty, makes sense. When you're analyzing hands are you mostly just looking at your range, opponents range, and think about how you play your range vs different sizings and different run outs?

Basically, yeah, although I don't do as much as I used to. On the hands where I wasn't sure of the right play (especially I ended up losing a big pot) I'll sometimes rethink my line and have a word with myself, or make some notes on the actual villain if he did something unexpected.

Have you considered the idea of playing tighter and perhaps with a shorter stack at the start of a session, then opening up to your normal game and topping off to a full stack once you feel warmed up?