 everybody and I wanted to check in with you today to do a book review on this which is called Deep Work, it's by Cal Newport. Last year I delivered a session as part of the Safety Glitz Roadshow for Charter Count Charlotte and this was my suggested read for 2017. I had come across it around about the middle of last year as a recommendation from Deirdre Lyons, one of the most well-read people that I know. She said you really need to read this Deep Work. So I did and the reason I'm only doing a book review now is because I wanted to first of all read it and second of all put the suggested activities into action and then tell you about it. So I've done that and now that we are in October 2017 I wanted to tell you how I've got on. So first and foremost what is this book about? Well this book is about really doing proper Deep Work and it's not about productivity, it's not about getting things done, it's about training your brain to massively expand its mental capacity. It's about solving big problems, dramatically increasing your achievement and crucially removing the blockages to achieving that achievement. So over the past year and I in fact since I read it, so let's just say that would be around about the middle of last year coming up to the end of the year. How has this book affected me? Well I was thinking about this in preparation for talking to you today and first and foremost the outputs that I have been able to work on this year as a result of pursuing strategies within the book include the following. So I have finished my master's getting the results of that actually in the coming days so hopefully that worked out well and finished that. I did a tax diploma this year and I got a distinction in that and that was one of the hardest things that I've done mentally in a long time probably since I studied CFA which is Chartered Financial Analyst Exams and I finished those in 2014 so that was really it was tough in the brain and I also thus far this year have done about 100 speaking events. We've run two Saviteen Academies. I have also been working on delivering outputs for every month on Saviteen Women Online, most of the ones we got. Also we've been publishing articles on the positiveeconomist.com and so on. Naturally enough in one of your company you have to produce proposals every day, every week, every month for a new business and that really is a flavour of what I've done so far this year as I say coming towards the end of October 2017. That is a dramatic increase in years gone by and I think that it has come from experience. It's come from knowing what works, knowing what doesn't. It comes from listening to the market. It comes from being aware of what your clients want but it also comes from figuring out how to manage all of the things that I learned in this book. So that has been the outputs, the visible outputs. Now there's a lot of things that have happened underneath the surface that aren't really output focused and there's a lot of things that we've been working on that aren't generating outputs yet that I will be telling you about in the months and years to come. So what I've told you about is a flavour, really. It's a flavour and when it comes to whether you might consider borrowing this book from the library or buying it on Eastons.com or downloading a PDF of it and reading it or borrowing it from somebody that you may know who's already read it and so on. And who might be interested in reading this book? I believe this book is really good for people who are output focused people, who need to deliver outputs. Now the author of this book, Cal Newport, the author of this book, he is a professor so his outputs are peer reviewed papers and other outputs in an academic setting that lead to his gaining a professorship. So he's very output focused. I've mentioned the outputs that I focus on. Now I'm not totally output focused and I don't want to put a number on it because it wouldn't be fair and it changes from day to day but a very significant part of what I do is output focused like what I mentioned. It's publishing, it's speaking, it's engaging with people, it's producing content, it's producing proposals, it's producing new business, a lot of that okay but also a huge amount of what I do is people focused. It's managing my team, dealing with people, interacting with people online, interacting with people offline, meeting with people, a range of other different things that is escaping me right now because this video is live but a lot of what I do is also very focused on people and that isn't suitable for this book. This book will not teach you how to interact better with people, in fact it'll drive you away from them. So I just want to make that point that this book is really focused for people who are output heavy and for that aspect of my day and my life and my business it's been excellent. In particular though I can imagine what you want from investing the time you're going to invest in listening to me is you want to know well what are the insights that I have really put into practice in the company and in my own day and life. So a couple of things. First of all like I mentioned this book is not about productivity and I have done an awful lot of courses on productivity, I have read a lot about productivity, I have put an awful lot of things in practice to aid my productivity. This isn't about productivity, this is about really getting what matters done. It's about looking at the output that you want and reverse engineering and environment and your headspace and your resources to do that. That's what this is about. So it's not about getting things done, it's about getting the things that really matter done to a level and at a speed higher than what you would have taught previously. That's what this book has done for me. What it's also done is cut out range of procrastinators and attention sappers and ones I didn't even know were there now I thought I was pretty vigilant to them. This book has really shown me where they were hiding so certainly that has I've learned that as well. I just want to tell you one story actually and that story has come specifically from reading this and thank you again to Deirdre for recommending that I do so. Last February I was at a trade show in San Francisco sorry I was at a trade show in Orlando. I was over in Orlando with a vectorist and I was working as part of a team there and I was at a conference in San Francisco and when I looked at the times in between the two there was only eight days so I thought about okay well will I come home and deal with the jet lag and all that comes with it or will I stay out there somewhere in the States and maybe somewhere I hadn't been before and that kind of thing. That's what I did and I decided that through a range of different coincidences and connections that I won't go into here I ended up anyway in Austin, Texas the first week of February and it was the first time in the six and a half years that Hayes Colleton had been in operation that I had taken a week out just to think. That's all. Now it was a scary thing actually because you know I remember ringing Ardell when I had just checked into my apartment a lovely apartment in in Austin and I remember saying you know what am I supposed to do now it was me and a notebook and a pen and off right no internet I only allowed myself to go onto the internet a certain period of time because of course I could fool myself into thinking that I was being productive and I really asked so and that are you know parts of the rules of deep work so anyway I am telling you those of you who will try it it's a kind of a scary thing to do because it's you and the notebook and there's no access to achievement for a few days and and no access to that feeling of that I'm getting somewhere so that's what I did anyway I spent the week thinking on my own in a beautiful part of the world and it was just me in a notebook and the results of that week were immense three things happened three things happened that wouldn't have happened had I not taken that week and had I not taken that week completely out of my usual environment number one I got the key crooks of the dissertation pieces for the Masters right so the entire crooks the entire proof of what I had wanted to develop for the Masters I found that week the second thing that happened was that I pushed through a huge amount of output heavy items and results and thoughts and processes and just a real big push towards getting a lot done for VectorVest when I was there so I got to a huge amount as many of you know I'm managing director of VectorVest Europe so I really really got through a huge amount of things that take time and effort and focus and the third thing that happened was that I lit a fire under a new project that Ireland I are working on and I'll tell you about that again in the months and years to come that's one of the things where the output from that particular week was visible to him and I but not to the rest of the world and that's it that'll take time that that will take time but I'm that's okay so but again none of those three things would have none of them none of the three things would have happened because you just can't come up with the crooks of the thesis sitting in your office or you can't light a fire under a completely new project unless you take the time to light the fire and I'm sure I could come up with all the manner of analogies and metaphors but you don't want that and so so that really that really was a defining point for the year but it was also a defining time in my professional development because I realized that was the first time in six and a half years and sorry to go further it was the first time ever I had taken a week out to do that so I've now planned um I've now asked Caroline um to put that week every single year in my diary to make sure that I take a week out and do so now the most wonderful Derek McGlone from Harvest Point has said to me Susan why don't you go to Texas come up to Donegal so I may well um take some time out next year specifically in Harvest Point in Donegal in her Lakeshore suite to do that because that is another place where I've really learned how to how to Harvest Point is a really wonderful place to digitally detox and of course it is the most wonderful setting for for doing so so anyway apart from all of that the the other thing I want to tell you that this book a deep work by Cal Newport by the way I'm just giving you this book review Cal Newport has no idea that I'm doing this by the way he totally disagrees with social media so there's a fear of being here and finding this out so I'm only telling you this not because of any sponsorship or any product placement or anything like it I'm simply here telling you about this um because I think it's a benefit to it's been a benefit to me and if it's been a benefit to me I want to tell you about it um okay so the other thing that I want to tell you that two other things that this book has done for me one is that I have learned how to create the environment that facilitates my deep my really deep work and that's why I'm here that's why I'm here and in this environment that you can see here behind me I'm actually at the moment in Balli Lagan organic farm in Belfast and it's a little bit outside of Belfast here is one of my if not my favorite place in the country in the island of Ireland to work deeply there's something about Balli Lagan organic farm that enables me to work incredibly well um I sit in this this specific room so this is the room that's available to guests you can see the wall of books behind me last night I was actually reading about the role of the prime minister in the UK and I was reading about prime ministers back to 1945 and it was right up until 97 and of course which was around the era of Tony Blair so I was I was reading that last night and that's one of the rules of deep work is that you completely decompress the night before you get into a real deep session in the morning so here is fantastic obviously with all the books um my own house has started to look like this now at the moment such is the library I'm accumulating um but also there's the coziness of the fire that's over there there's unlimited coffee that's over there Patricia the owner here knows that I love my Americanos and there's one over here as well actually to my left um but there's also the piece at the countryside I'm on a farm and you can't hear anything and you can't hear anything at all except your own thoughts which is again what you need for deep work but also there's a purity in the air and a purity of the environment by the by virtue of the fact that everything is organic here and it is about 14 miles outside of Belfast on the Antrim Coast and it's so it's well away from the city and when I need to be in Belfast again as many of you know I'm in Belfast regularly um we're doing a huge amount of work here in Northern Ireland across a range of different projects which I absolutely love I love being here but specifically it's ballet lag and organic farms where I go when I need to really think and really work deeply um so I started deep work session here this morning at half seven uh after I had followed all the rules in in Cal Newport's book Cal Newport's book around deep work I settled in here last night and this morning I started at half seven and I have really focused on things again that I couldn't do in my own office not that I physically can't obviously I can but when you're in your existing environment you do what you're used to doing it's a great place for me to have a huge burst of productivity I can close the door in my office and invent and DCU and I can sit there and I can burst through sending out invoices and I can you know follow up on a range of emails and I can I'll be on my Slack channel and I'll talk to everybody who's in the company and all that sort of thing and I talk to clients and I'm on Skype calls and I'm at all sorts of things I can really be productive in my office but to deep work I can't so that's why I specifically for example come here now there's some of you know my deep work spots around the world but here and that's the reason I wanted to do this this live from here this Facebook live from here is because I want to show you physically where I come to do so so that's the the fifth thing that I've learned from from this book is it's how to cultivate an environment but the other thing right and this is kind of key and probably most important of anything that I'm about to tell you what I've also learned here is I've learned how to facilitate my mind for deep work and that there are specific strategies what I like about Cal is that me that I'm now I'm personally in terms of him as I say he's never heard of me but what I have specifically learned how to do in deep work is that I have learned how to how to facilitate my mind for this so how to hone my concentration sharpen my focus eliminate distractions and he's ruthless he's ruthless on how to do that and I've learned how to shape my diary and of course Caroline helps me to do that all the time sorry she does that all the time and she she too was pretty ruthless on it I have to say um I've learned how to um how I don't even know the verb for this how I have not planned my downtime how I have developed my downtime how I how I pursue my downtime there's there's a word here that I can't think of but anyway uh how I use my downtime I supposed to facilitate my uh my my deep work my shutdown ritual now that's a term that he called that he describes in the book so any of you who reads it do you know what I mean how I shape my exercise my time in the car my time reading my use of my phone it's another one that he's pretty clear on my use of the internet and also my discipline my hard discipline about what really matters uh Cal Newport also has a has a term uh around that and it's called the law of the vital fuel again that's that's something that that you'll see within it and also my method of email communication and also how to quantify depth so that's my book review as I say it's been very very useful for me thanks so much to Deirdre for suggesting it to me there there will be a blog post on the positive economist.com about this so I will it will be on there I'm also going to feature this particular video and the blog post in next month's newsletter many of you uh on this page are also uh subscribers to that when I say subscribers that's free by the way and you can check out that on the positive economist.com so again just in summary what deep work has shown me is how to get what really matters done it's shown me how to eliminate procrastination and attention sappers that I didn't really know existed and I told you my story about my week in Texas and I have since taken days out I've taken a day out of the clips and more recently Deirdre as I mentioned at her response has suggested I go to Donegal next year if not for a week if for a couple of days Caroline has my week in the diary next year for wherever that location that week long location will be I've learned how to cultivate my environment and as I mentioned Ballelag and organic farm here in Belfast is one of my if not my favorite place in the island of Ireland to do so and finally I've learned how to shape my mind so on that note I'm going to finish this and I'm now off to work on the people side of everything today and I have two meetings today in about in Belfast city and there they are people heavy and output heavy and thank you very much Cal Newport thank you very much Deirdre McGlone and thank you very much to Deirdre Lions for suggesting that I read this book and most of all thank you for tuning in today best wishes and best wishes specifically for your deeper bye