MMM: Over-rolled?

Welcome to the first edition of the Monday Morning Mailbag. This week's email reads:

Hey Sushi,
What's the deal with the stakes you're playing? You're sitting on top of well over two bills and I saw you playing .01/.02 and buying in short. When you buy in to the shallow tables you're only putting .40 on the line and the normal tables you're coming in for .70 which is less than 1/3 of a percent of your roll. Even if you play eight tables at your highest buy in you have less then 3% of your stake in play at one time. That seems pretty conservative.

Kenny T.
Arcadia, CA

Kenny,
Thanks for writing. Yeah, I know that I could be putting more money out there at once. Right now I do not plan on touching anything until after April 1 since I have a prop bet going with my poker buds. I just want to stay the course so as not to mess up the mojo for now. I also don't feel like I am consistently crushing these stakes. At one point I was up $20 against the rake and now I'm down $40 so I'd say that there is an issue with my play. I'm still learning a lot, part of it is the play of hands but I think a bigger part of it is the human element. I think that by far the biggest challenge is being able to stay focused and disciplined while grinding away. I also doubt that I am playing optimally in all situations. I probably should be stealing more and defending my blinds more instead of only playing premium hands but I'm going to do more research into what I should be doing in those aspects of the game. I have played some hands at .02/.05 and ran really bad at it when I first tried it about a month ago. That move destroyed my bankroll and started me on a long decline so I'm a little gun shy about it. I know that moving up is inevitable but I want to make sure that I am better prepared before going up the next time.

Sushi Cowboy