Lesson learned : Don't answer the phone

I just called off my stack with AK vs a supernit who limp/called, then bet into me every street with a flopped A, and then pushed over the pot when a K hit the river.
Worst play ever? Yes I think so.
Why'd I do it? I answered the phone while 20-tabling and took 0.01 seconds on each decision. Never again.

I've answered the phone 24 tabling before and it was one of the most stressful experiences of my life, I feel your pain!

fold pre-call

A better approach to learning from this experience would be to develop a heightened awareness that triggers whenever you know that something has changed in your playing environment to make you more prone to mistakes. This could be answering the phone, or it could be something else unexpected. The unexpected is always there ready to jump out and bite us in the ass, and it's better to be prepared.

Uhh, you mean like spidey-senses or mensa mode? I already knew I was in less-than-optimal mode, but I can't freeze time (although I should have told the person on the other end of the line to wait) so I still had to act.

What exactly are you suggesting here?

What I mean is we should work towards always being in a soft zone when we're working or whatever we're doing, so that interruptions or things going ways we didn't expect/hoped for them not to don't create an emotional reaction.

You can start the process by working at not reacting at little things in your day to day life, like someone pulling out in front of you in traffic. If you practice with the little stuff, then the conditioning you give yourself will show when the big stuff comes up.