 Hi everybody. It's Susan here. You are all very welcome. I'm first of all just going to let everybody in there and just make sure that everyone's in and settled before I start. So I'm joining you here live from my office tonight and thanking everybody for for joining us so I'm just going to let everybody in there. Perfect. Yeah, I see the draw flying in. So great to see that great and great to see great to see people joining in on a what's becoming a dark Tuesday evening to talk about this particular topic. Okay, so I see loads, loads of people popping in there. Brilliant. Brilliant indeed. Well, first of all, you're all super welcome. Like I say, my name is Susan Hayes Colleton and I am the co-author of positive economics. And I deliver the positive economics webinars and have been doing now for some time. Particularly as the new syllabus is now coming into its third year into operation. And of course now we also have the Leaving Cert project and also a really, really interesting time to be an economist and time to be looking at the economy in general. So, first of all, tonight's session is being recorded. So you can see, well, I can see it up here anyway that we've read a little dot up there, pointing out that this is being recorded so I will be sharing this afterwards with everybody. And of course, if anybody has any questions, I'm going to give you plenty of ways to reach out to me afterwards. The focus of tonight is very much focusing on effective study techniques. And I'm actually somebody that didn't study economics leaving cert wasn't in my school at the time. Instead I studied economics in college. And then when I went on to write the book then with Brian and Trudy after that, then I had to basically teach myself how to teach it and how to study it through the lens of a secondary school and leaving So therefore I truly know an awful lot about how to make this work. And as I mentioned I studied right throughout college as well. And of course, since then you can't be a practicing economist without seeing an awful lot of how things work. So the five areas that I'm going to focus on tonight are very much focusing in around studying study tips for the leaving search but number one they can be carried across to lots of other subjects. They can be carried into college and or whether you're studying any other exams as well. That is the whole point. Okay, so first of all, I'm going to ask you for your thoughts. First of all, because I am going to pull up here, my Instagram. Well, it's one of them. Anyway, and I'm just going to put it up here. In this in our Instagram, I have created a story. And on that story is a question. So I'm going to pop that there into the chat. First of all, for two reasons. Number one is to ask you your thoughts. And I'll be able to add this in then for everybody else. But the second reason is to give you a way to connect with me afterwards if you like I find generally speaking, when I'm on the positive economics webinars. This is the way people prefer. So, if you head on over there. I have asked a question. And now there's a few stories that we've been running there today so you can you can go out there to the last one and the last one is what is you can see. I'll just pop out there. The question that I put up here is what is your best study tip, so that then we can share those with everybody else as well I'm going to give you my five. But what is your best study tip, and then we will be share share those afterwards as well well depending on if I can. So it's just also as I say it gives you a way that we can stay in contact afterwards, should you want to. I, as I say generally find that this is what people want to to do when it comes to. Okay, perfect. Yeah, I can see now that you've started to to look at that one so I'll leave that there open. I'll keep keep an eye on it. And then afterwards I'll share those with you as well. But I'm going to give you my number one. I often find that a lot of people underestimate this one, or else they assume that it can't happen but I'll tell you my number one and my number one study tip and work tip and work like long after school tip is to enjoy it. It sounds simple. But it's what one that a lot of people underestimate and I that's why I chose the title tonight a lot of people like watching Netflix. I like watching it too. But thing is is that people like doing it because it's enjoyable. How do you make studying enjoyable well be interested in the topic in the first place and I would imagine if you have chosen the subject for your leaving search, or of course you're choosing to teach this. Then we're already there, but I would say I am grateful to say that I have been in business now for quite a while. I've been in studying studying for quite a while longer than that. And I can definitely say if you can find a way to enjoy it, then you will outrun, you will outwork, you will out sustain anybody. And there's a couple of ways to find it enjoyable is number one ask yourself, why is it that I enjoy studying this is it because in macro it gives me a different lens to look at the world that's what I always said about macro economics, it's a different way of looking at the way in which the world works. And to me, economics is everywhere. It is in every shop. It's in every government decision. It's in every business. It's it's in so many ways. It's as you're walking down like as you're walking down the aisles of a grocery shop as you're picking a flight that you're going to go on if you're looking up a booking engine like booking.com in order to find a place to stay, whatever it might be to me economics is everywhere. And as a result, to me that was always one of the ways that I really enjoyed looking and learning about is is that it's also a way of course to affect really, really positive change really is so for example. Yesterday I was just looking at the sustainable development goal I'm sure any of you that have got the sustainability chapters within positive economics or any, any way that you're studying it. You'll have to have discovered the sustainable development goals now there are 17 goals globally that the United Nations have pulled like lots of countries together to agree on. And one of them, number two is zero hunger, the whole idea of eradicating global hunger. You know I was just reading into it and you might think that, okay global hunger probably exists because there's not enough food in the world that's absolute nonsense. There was enough food for every man woman and child and the earth. The reason that it actually that global hunger exists is actually down to other things like storage is that we can't get the four factors of production to operate in certain environments, whereby people can actually get food out of the ground using labor so that and then carry it somewhere where it can be stored which is an engineering in a physics problem. Another reason is 80% I learned of the rice that is produced in in Vietnam goes to waste because of extreme weather events, flooding happens, for example. Okay, so you might say okay but that's a geographical issue. And another reason that emerging markets in particular don't do as well as they could do is because they actually can't get their product to market. The ability to reach the markets aren't there so when we look at monopolistic competition when we look at oligopoly monopoly. We always assume that the producer can actually reach the people who want and are interested in buying its product. So when I was looking at this yesterday I was looking at it from a sustainability point of view, and I'm looking at I was looking at it as a case study for an entirely different stem initiatives I do a lot of work now in stem with things that we work on now within Saviteens. And I was just looking at that at all the different lenses in which you can you can look and economics could do so much, so much around that if you bring an economist in. If you bring an economist into that specific conversation with the engineers with geography with aviation with government, etc. And I'm not saying they're not there, but my point is is that an economist will look at that quite differently. So again, it is how could I, in my work as an economist or as an economics teacher how can I affect better change. Another area that we talk an awful lot about in and different ways as an economic different ways and economics and also in money matters the other book that I wrote that should be now in every school in the country, and because we gave it away for free through a code or publisher is also the whole idea of shopping local is that through understanding the multiplier and propensity to consume by understanding all of that circular flow of income you can see how shopping local can really make a difference to local jobs to local businesses to the local environment, as well as of course to taxes to employment and all those other things. So that's why I really enjoy it is that I think that it's a phenomenal way to look at the world. I think you can really be a vehicle for such positive change. And of course the other thing is that it gives you a way to to understand an awful lot of things that are happening at the moment, and the number one thing that I may ask about as a practicing economist these days is inflation. And you know also from your study of economics that inflation we have demand pull, we have cost push, we know what leads to inflation we know the challenges that central banks have around dealing with inflation we know the tools the monetary policy tools that also central banks have in order to deal with it. So because you know that, because you actually have an understanding of that and you just studying that, or you're working on studying that. It just gives you a different way of just understanding the way the world works. And then of course when it comes to applying for jobs later on, and obviously the teachers who are here here tonight, all of you are in those jobs. But when it comes to, for any of you students who are looking at the sessions evening, when it comes to applying for jobs economics is such a transferable skill, because you can understand supply and demand you can understand pricing you can understand profitability, can understand the big things that can have a big effect on you. Like I'll give you another example. We have an American client. We've worked this American client now for 11 years, and we are paid in dollars. So, since the exchange rate has been absolutely wonderful from a euro point of view because the euro has considerably weakened against a very, very, very low dollar, it then means that we get more money. So when we're being paid in dollars, we're getting more money, which is great. But of course on the other hand is that the US client that we have who's selling into European Union, they're getting less. So then that's having a knock on effect in them and then they're saying okay now what do we need to do how do we call costs how we manage this. How do we sustain this is because I genuinely understand where it's coming from with driving it. I know the way interest rates are affecting exchange rates. I know how to read the news when it comes to understanding what the future projection is going to be like. That really helps me serve them an awful lot better. And that's business to business but as an employee. Of course then if you're able to understand the trends that are affecting your employer or better. There's more of a position to be able to help them to be able to get promoted to be able to analyze the information that you're working with to understand the environment that that that the company is operating in to see the opportunities as well and economist is very good at spotting trends and that's one of the things I'm going to talk about very good at spotting trends so maybe there's new opportunities that you can direct your employer towards or yourself, of course as well. Before we get right into my five specific and tips separate to the whole enjoyment one because that's the mega one that has gone to underpin everything is. I was listening to a podcast this morning as I was walking I as I was as I was walking into the office I listen generally speaking when I'm in the office, which is a good few days and not every day because I travel a lot with what I do. So I was walking this morning I was listening to a podcast all around British productivity, and it was analyzing how the productivity of the United Kingdom has changed over the last 100 years, and it compared to Britain. Sorry, that is, how it compared to France, Germany, Italy and America. And one of the key things that points out that other countries are better at is connecting industry and universities and the education sector in general, and people. So how can you bring people, universities, the academic sector and businesses how do you bring them all together to make something happen with with government sport. And I think one really good example of this and I would say this for everybody who's here. I would say this could be of use to any, maybe your parents, maybe your aunties, uncles, maybe yourself in years to come, or for any teachers who's here tonight this could be useful for you, or any of your friends as well is the springboard program. And the springboard program is a government funded program, whereby the government funds courses to happen across Ireland. And I mean 90% funded for people who are in employment and 100% funded for people who are in unemployment, and the courses relate the skills shortages that are across the board in the industry. So digital marketing is one we're always crying out for people in digital marketing entrepreneurship is another one financial services is another one. What do you need when you've got education, and you've got people, and you've got government supports, well which you really really benefit from is also having a university backing that, because the university can then give certification. So somebody comes to me applying for a job in digital marketing and they say, I know how to create different promotions on Instagram versus somebody says, I have a certificate, a level nine certificate from Ulster University. Well then of course then that credentializes it so much more. And that's an example of industry, namely businesses. The university, the government funding it and people as well the whole lot working together. And I lecture on one of those I lecture in fintech financial technology that's the springboard program that I'm lecturing in I had my students last night. And they are going through two modules two nights a week. Again, 90% funded if they're in employment 100% funded if they're not. And then they're going to do two more modules after Christmas, and then put the whole lot together and Ulster University is backing that. And there's a range of universities who are working with springboard. The one I lecture first in Northern Ireland and I'm delivering this online but the point I'm making is is that's an example of connection. For me, as an economist, I'm not just seeing this program as almost telling such and such person about that you know because there's and by the way there's loads and loads and loads and loads of springboard programs that analytics as I mentioned digital marketing, loads and loads of them. But I'm not just looking at that and thinking that could be a good thing for me to tell such and such person about who's maybe looking to move career or up skill. I'm seeing that as that's a way in which we, as a country, are solving a lot of problems where enabling people to upskill post college, or without college at all, we're enabling skills shortages to be filled. And of course the only reason the government knows what skills shortages are there is because industry is telling them, we're working collaboratively with universities where it's not just about the day courses and the degree courses and the CAO. And then we're also enabling people independent of whether they're employed or unemployed to have access to this for future employment for themselves. And of course, if it helps them to become employed or employed at a higher wage level, there's higher taxes, higher consumption, more possibilities for those people, etc. So for all those reasons, economics to me is super enjoyable. Now what I'm going to do is I'm going to share my screen, and I'm going to put up my five, my five key, my five key study tips here. Before I do that I'm just going to check over here to see what your answers have been to the story. And also, will you please put it there into into the, you can just put it into into the chat. Just tell me why do you enjoy studying economics. So why do you enjoy studying economics. That's my question. Why do you enjoy studying economics. So when I'm getting my slides up there, I am going to ask you that question. So you can just pop it there into the chat. Why is it that you enjoy studying economics. I see them there as they're coming through. So as I say, here where what I'm going to focus on tonight is how to study economics while watching Netflix and five other effective study techniques. So I've already been through the one mega one, like I say, which is to enjoy it. If you can find why you enjoy it, that will help you and it's the same for French. It's the same for business. I, again, business wasn't a subject that I could study in school. It wasn't available to us. I did accounting. I did Irish English maths, applied maths, physics, chemistry, accounting in French, I did it. And, and that was the way I trained my brain even back then I started this from second year in school. I started training my brain to think, okay, what am I enjoying about this? What am I enjoying about this? What, what could I do to make this more enjoyable for me? That was always, always what I did. Okay, so as, when it comes to Netflix, I'm going to be three shows that I think are particularly useful relating to three different areas of the economics syllabus. Number one is, oh, sorry, this is the background on me. We'll move on from all of that. There's a, I was going to, going to tell you a little bit about my story and how I got to, and doing some of the things that I'm doing, but actually I'll skip, skip straight out. Number one is this, and it is money explained. Now money explained is, as you can see there down here, you can see the description, we spend it, we borrow it, we save it. Now let's talk about money and its many minefields from credit cards to casinos, scammers to student loans. And what this does is it shows you exactly how the monetary system works. And as you know, we have a range of chapters within the book that we have to focus on here. So monetary policy tools, how money actually moves, regulation, market failure, all of those tie right into this. So within this show what it looks at is why is it that people borrow money. And you might say well sure it's obvious because they want to take money from tomorrow into today. That's ultimately what credit is for. Yeah that may be the case if they want it that way. But of course the consequences of doing that mean that then you have to go on and think about okay how am I going to repay the interest. How am I going to repay the interest. How much am I going to repay in total. Also, it also looks in here it looks at the psychology as well of money so why is it that we do spend as much as we do how do we spend it. Looking at e-commerce so when you spend money online versus in person in a shop, etc. So this one is, there's a lot of kind of, you know, stories in here all around personal finance and so on like that. It's not very psychological but also you can see exactly how the tools of money are actually used. Now, the second show that I wanted to refer to is this one, Rotten. This one, now this particular episode that I would recommend is the one about avocados. As you can see here this docu series so it's a series of them travels deep into the heart of this food supply chain to reveal unsavory truths and expose hidden forces that shape what we so in this case, it looks at avocados in different parts of the world whether it's in South America, for example, and they talk to people around what actually goes into creating avocados. And of course there's a lot of water, a water in a very warm environment, and the labor that's involved and where the labor comes from. And also then what it ultimately goes into if you look at it through an economic lens is looking at supply and demand. So it looks also at supply and demand. So when you come to consider the amount of avocados that are actually made available for people to buy right across the world. Then it has to come from somewhere. And also it also looks at then the higher and higher and higher demand that has been for avocados. So I don't know about you but I certainly didn't eat avocados when I was 10, 11. And I certainly didn't grow up in a household where we guacamole, for example, or I certainly didn't grow up in a household where we've been done for avocado toast on a Saturday morning. So basically, my point is is that in we have gotten far more used to eating avocados if you eat any type of Mexican meal at all. And some of you let's say if you like to go for a burrito, and there's a range of those all over the place now. They might ask you do you want guacamole and that guacamole is fundamentally made from avocados and then there can be other things in there like garlic and tomatoes and lime juice and other lovely stuff. The show does actually point out to you exactly how supply and demand have entirely shaped so many other things. It's demand for avocados has shaped where water goes. Demand for avocados has increased the value of them. Demand for avocados has meant that more and more people are applying for more are using up more and more space to grow them. Demand for avocados has changed the nature of labor as well is that what labor is available in order to harvest this. So of course, all of those factors have influenced supply. All of those, all of those factors along the way so that's my second one that I would suggest. And then this one is actually a Korean one. Personally, I watch shows on, I haven't done in a while, but I particularly during lockdown I was watching a lot of shows in French on Netflix I watched and call my agent I watched Luba. I watched family business I watched bonfire destiny. I watched a range of others and in my mind at the time, because we couldn't go anywhere I was thinking oh this is kind of like my way that I can be in France in my head. So I started to do those and I've really found that it very much sharpened my ear now I did French for leaving start I did on higher level French and it doesn't like it doesn't leave you in many ways muscle memory so it stays in there until you can pull it out again. So I often find that if you if you immerse yourself into an environment, like I was like I was looking at say let's say Lupa or I was looking at call my agent, all of those were in French and I was reading subtitles is that it does take more concentration to do that. You don't have a word of Korean, not a word of it. And we do have a Korean staff member she lives in Dublin she works in our in our company and she's brilliant and she has taught me so much about Korean culture and everything. But all that said my point is that I would be watching this one with English subtitles on same as probably lots of other people, but why is it that I recommend this one. Well, this one is all around entrepreneurship. And it's about being in an environment where you've got ideas and you want to pitch them, and you're pitching to investors so what this does is it gives you an example of getting access to capital, for example. It talks about specific entrepreneurs as well having to show how they're different. So what is being different, it's showing how you're different to your competition so that's monopolistic competition, you don't have monopoly. You certainly don't have a monopoly and you don't have perfect competition. Every business who is a startup has to show how they're different. It also then shows you about the amount of work that goes into something and if you think, think of the example that we give you at the beginning of the book around satisfying, which is satisfactorily doing something. So that it's sufficient. It's a theme that we talked about at the very beginning. It talks to it just shows you here how much effort can go into starting a business how much time and effort goes into building something where you may not necessarily succeed. But then again that is what business is all about. And then, of course, it also talks about it gives examples here of when you get turned down for funding, and if you don't get funding if you're not able to raise the money in order to build a business that is one key factor of production. Other three that are inaccessible, whether it's land and the labor and the enterprise, you can't get the land, let's say you can't get the money to build the shop or build your website if it's in a digital environment. You can pay staff, including yourself and then as regards enterprise as we all know the reward for enterprise is profit but you don't get any profit if you can't run the others. The other thing too is that initial like this it distinguishes between short and long term is that short term. I am a startup founder I have been several times. So, I know what it's like to be able to work very intensively on a new business for a period of time but if you can't bring in the money if your customers don't buy or your potential customers don't buy if your competition outruns you if any of these things happen. Well then, then the short run means that you can get to the long run you can't actually change those long term factors. And I've also been in a situation where there has been more demand and supply, and therefore you have to write so I'm going to take on more people or I'm going to expand the capability of our website to handle orders or all of the other things that you might do and of course again in the book we talked to you about you know a shop can't double their capacity overnight but it can do over a year. The difference again between the short run factors and long run factors. So, there are three shows, three shows on Netflix that I would, that I would point out so number one there is is money explained, sorry, number one there is money explained. This one is more about monetary policy, the money system, market failure regulation, more than kind of the latter half of the book. And of course, remember, every time we talk about spending, every time we talk about spending money. We're not at the circular flow of income, instead of somebody spends money, then of course that money is going to somebody else's pocket, along the way apart that possibly might go to that. Therefore it's going to the government. And if it's going towards paying for something it's quite likely that whatever you're paying for has cost the person selling it to something so whether it is like I have a cup of coffee here in front of me Well, what's what's the cost of in here well, there's the cost of the coffee beans there's the cost of the water. And there's the cost of the cup, there's the cost of the person who actually made the coffee. And also then there's the cost of marketing it to me. Is that of course, the fact that I'm sitting here in my office and I have a couple coffee in front of me. It means that I had to know where to go in order to get it. So there was marketing there, whether that was Twitter, whether that was a sign up at the door or whether it was somebody who has signage upside. So every time you spend money money moves on. And of course, we know that's called the velocity of money. So monetary policy interest rates, exchange rates, regulation market failure. They don't talk about margin propensity to consume, you will know what that is. All of those things refer to that one. This one is more micro the direction that I wanted to give you here is sublime demand. So what is, you know, when we talk about all of the factors that affect demand like tastes, like I mentioned, is it's incredibly burritos themselves have massively exploded in popularity in Ireland over the past couple of years. And Mexican food is a relatively, relatively new cuisine we'd say in Ireland when I say relatively new I'm going to say, I don't know 2025 years as opposed to spots. I'm going to go back to the famine to talk to you about the change in the popularity and tastes. And now brunch is far more something that that people go out to eat at a weekend. A lot of people let's say might have avocados and tools to their avocados tools for that. And more people like having avocados on their pizza. More and more and health food avocados would be seen as a really there's healthy fat in it if you look at it from a nutritious point of view. And if you look at demand, but of course then demand can also influence supply. And when it looks at supply when you look at environmental factors, labor factors, and lots of other ones. And then the other thing I suppose that I should just mention in here very briefly is international trade is we don't grow avocado like, you know, I'm looking at my office window here there's no avocado grown out there are oranges are lots of other fruits or vegetables. So if the international trade ties in here as well as that if we're buying avocados in, then of course then that that reflects an exports our balance of trade or our balance of payments, etc. And then the third one here is startup. What this refers to like I say is entrepreneurship access to capital, long run and short run factors. And if you can't get access to one form of one factor of production, it may prevent you from getting to the others. Similarly, I could say the same for labor, and that's a lot of, you know what's happening at the moment. Around the country is that you see businesses closing because they can't get stuff. So they have money, they have a premises, they have customers therefore the enter the entrepreneur would be able to make a profit. So if they can't get people will then, then of course it prevents them accessing the other three factors of production as well. And it also as I say talks about the difference between short and long run. Okay, so I'm just going to stop there for a second. I'm just going to stop sharing, and I'm just going to see here if there's any questions or comments so far. So pop them there into the chat. And I'm also just going to keep an eye over here as well on story. So if there's any questions. So as I say, what I'd love to hear from you was why. What I'd love to hear from you was why you love, why you're interested or what you enjoy about studying economics, and also if you have any questions and pop them in the chat there as well. And I better have a sip of coffee since it you know was forming a key part of today. And I don't see anything in there. So that's that's grand. I'll move on so and I'll go on to my second key thing that I wanted to talk about. Okay. And this is the next one I just have to again make sure that I'm moving on terms of my slides. Yeah, okay. This is my second, my second key tip of the five building upon the mega one as I say which is the, which is the focus on enjoyment. Okay, this is something that I talked to two students a lot about is, I remember what it used to be like saying I'm going to study on a Saturday for four hours. And what I would suggest is that you change your approach then to more so focusing on the learning objectives now as authors, our job was to put the learning objectives at the start of every chapter we had to do that. And that's something that that disciplines put on any textbook writer. Now, if you can really and truly understand the learning objective quicker than let's say the four hours what I suggest you do is focus on that. Rather than time if you say that you're going to study for four hours and you spend two of those hours kind of looking at your phone or checking things out on, you know, look at out the window or whatever and then you get to the end of the four hours well then you've done it. Whereas instead if you can say right on Saturday, let's I'm just taking Saturday as a day I just, I don't know how much you're in school or when you're not or what your culture is around homework or anything I'm just going to say on Saturday I am going to entirely understand the circular flow of income, marginal propensity to consume marginal propensity to save marginal propensity to import. So that's going to be my objective. That is my plan. And what I mean by that is that I'm going to read through how it was said in the book, the book or no or whatever, I'm going to summarize it. I'm going to just summarize exactly what the key points are. And then I'm going to look for exam questions in that area. I'm going to try and do three exam questions and I'm going to compare what I say in the exam questions to what the answers are. And then I'm going to note down what I got wrong and where to where I could get that right in future. If you focus on doing that and you do it in less than four hours, well then you've basically achieved probably as much as you would if you actually said I'm going to sit down and study for four hours. So that's what I would say is that focus on learning objectives instead. And by the way, I'm the very same. I run a business and I don't come in here on any given day and say, right, I'm going to work today for eight hours and I'm going to take a break at the meeting. That's that that just doesn't happen at all. I come in here with a set of set of things that I want to achieve every day, not always realistic based on the things that come at me during the day. And of course, sometimes I overachieve, I suppose you could say, but in general I come in here and I write down what it is that I want to achieve in any given day, and that's my goal. And if I get that finished by four o'clock, well then I finish it for as rare now because then I generally there's more to do but my point is is if you focus on the learning objectives. So let me just roll back here now a little bit number one is all of the learning objectives are at the beginning of the chapter. We had to put them there. That's the first thing the echo asked us to do is write on the learning objectives. So there's a list of them at the beginning of each chapter and that is what you need to aim to really know so that you're well prepared going into the exam. The second thing is, is that instead of focusing on I'm going to study for four hours I'm going to study for one hour I'm going to study for half an hour is instead put your focus on I'm going to really understand one thing. And what does really understanding one thing means it means reading the material and understanding it. In my opinion, summarizing it as well so that so that you've got your notes. And we do our best in the book to highlight the definitions are to give you some exam tips along way, like we do seek to kind of make it as succinct as possible so that it's, it's visually easy to learn. That is our intent. Of course, feel free to give me any feedback that you might like, but anyway. And then from there, I would then go on to say okay I'm going to do either the questions at the back, maybe if you're in fifth year that might be a better place to be at the earlier stages rather than the exam questions that might be a bit more advanced. And given of course exam questions are asked at the end of six year, but asking yourself a question, or asking, answering the questions, then comparing the questions to the answers, and then noting down what would I have needed to do to get that right. And that's what I would say would be an effective study session, not time, because I find if it is time well then you can kind of drift off and it's easy to say right I've succeeded if I sat here for four hours and I, you know, didn't move. I come in here on any given day and sit here for four hours and I could do nothing. So that's what I would say and I would very much also echo this idea when it comes to any type of study but also even in the workplace. In the workplace as well, even when it comes to my own staff. I don't watch what time they come in I don't watch what time they go. That's that's none of my business really to a large degree. So we have a project management system tasks are there. And then it's up to me generally to assign the tasks based on what the client wants. And then in there and say okay, this needs to be done by Monday Tuesday Wednesday, or else they work out between them what can be done by when. And that is what the working world is more so like today is making sure that people do what they need to do by the time it needs to be done so that people can get on with their work, the client needs whatever they need. That's that's important. So that would be my second one is focused on the learning objectives. And again, summarize learning objectives at the beginning to know know what you need to know, and exercises, a summary, and then also what you need to do in order to get to get that right. All right. Number three is this one is observe trends. I do this all the time. Observe trends. So I put I put a picture here on the left of two restaurant owners. And I anytime I go like anywhere I could be in a taxi, I could be out for breakfast, I could be walking like I mentioned to you walking down the walking down the aisle of super value I could be talking to thousands of teenagers that we work with every year I could be reading an article I'm always observing trends and that's how you that's there that's how you spot an economist and economist is always always just sees trends. And this is super important particularly when it comes to your economics project it's very important for you to be able to identify trends that's part of the research study that that you need to have. So, like you might say well what sort of trends am I supposed to be seeing. Well, like I mentioned, the one that I'm being asked all the time about these days is inflation. So, can you see inflation, when it is that you're maybe buying tickets for the cinema tickets for football match or the cost of school books or the cost of a sandwich in the shop, or any like you think about anything you're spending money on. Observe, just observe just see where prices are going. Many, many people at the moment are talking about say the rising cost of energy. So I see it in the bills coming in. And of course I also see the credits that the government is giving to overcome or deal with that as well. Well, there was one anywhere earlier on, and based on what happened in the budget there'll be more but the point is is that I'm watching that I can see that. If I was to say to you as well like think about the trends of maybe just one I'm working with a group of teenagers at the moment you probably any of you that checked the Instagram stories you'll have seen. We're, we're running the transition work experience for the Society of Actuaries this week. And so the focus that we have with the group that are in at the moment is entirely around jobs in the actuarial profession. And when, when, when I look at the trends of what I'm seeing this week what to talk about is, first of all sustainability is the growth in the jobs available now for people to work in sustainability. This is because the Sustainable Development Goals are obviously they require people to be able to go and implement them. There's actually what actuaries now are being brought into factor the risk of environmental impacts on on businesses on where business can businesses can locate on if there's going to be lower travel so that how do people work now without traveling to each other. So people having to put more money into negating any environmental impact they're having changing vehicles from petrol or diesel to electric, all these types of things are what are what actuaries have are doing within their job so there's a trend is that I'm watching and I can see how this is changing the nature of that specific job. And we run work experiences like all across various different sectors. So I'm, I'm joining the dots as I'm watching the various different ones and what's coming up in there. There's a trend that's coming up more and more and this is where again economics is so helpful is there's more and more demand I find in the labor market for people with critical thinking skills and that's what the economics project really and truly pushes you to do is to critically analyze is to look at something and wonder why, why is it like that. How can it be different. If something changed, what could change what could make a difference. So, for example, at the moment, I always learned in school, as you learn in positive economics or however your, your, your studying economics this year. You learn that interest rates effects inflation is that if you put up the cost of borrowing, and then what should happen is that it slows down the economy, and then people spend less and then that holds back prices. Okay, and that generally speaking is the case. But this year we're in a very different scenario because of the war in Ukraine. And as a result, there's like I saw, I was looking at the state of the state of the Union address that or slavander Lane gave two weeks ago. I was giving a webinar, and all around the very things I'm talking about now for the Institute of banking. As a practicing economist you're often asked to present an economic snapshot on something to a group of people to help them observe the trends. Anyway, or slavander Lane was just talking about the fact that last year that we as your European Union was in imported 40% of gas from Russia and that's now down to 9%. For example, so as a result that we're bringing in less gas from that particular area, then of course, what happens well if you decrease the supply price goes up. Of course, we're not changing demand necessarily. So the price goes up, or you find a new supply. And that of course then she was talking about how it's going to be so much more money put into hydrogen energy for example across the EU. Well, what do you need if you need hydrogen energy. Yes, you need a lot of money. Yes, you need a lot of equipment but you need a lot of people who are very good at analyzing that physicists, engineers, geologists, regulation people, economists, etc. So critical analysis is being able to think critically being able to not just see things and accept them as they are but question why, why is it that inflation is happening. Why is it that if you affect interest rates it's not having the same effect on inflation and it's not, it's not, it's not because this time it's not just about people spending more and more it's actually about one particular commodity, namely energy going up a price, which is also being done by something outside of central the European Central Bank's control. So critical analysis if you can think critically so I would say to you in jobs in the future, you may well be asked, tell us about a time you thought critically or tell us about a time when you challenged the assumptions or tell us about a time when you had to investigate a topic. This project can be your answer. And that's another respective trends that we're seeing in the marketplace now is competency based interviews. A competency based interview was when you're asked a question like, tell me about a time you worked in a team. Tell me about a time you overcame a problem. Tell me about a time that you disagreed with your boss. Tell me about a time that you etc. So that's the way in which people these days are being interviewed for jobs is tell me about a time that you showed a competency. There's so much in your study of economics that you can answer. So, whether it's your project, or whether it's studying for an exam or whether it's observing the trends, etc. All of that is an example of thinking critically. So what I would say to you here is observe what's going on around you and if you make it so much easier then to think of the answers. And I've looked at obviously the exams of the years since I've started writing the book with Brian and Trudy and we've been our positive economic spin in the market now published for the first time in 2014. So we're almost 10 years old. So I've been looking at exam papers all throughout that time. And a lot of the time they ask you for an example of or you have to think about a time that or think about what, what, you know, government decision could be done in order to deal with this problem. So just look around you. Just look around you as I say, talk to people if you're in, if you're in a restaurant, observe the prices of things as you're paying for them, or even observe where people are paying for them like I'm paying more and more now off the watch, because I just hold the watch up there and then it scans and then that links back then to to a payment app. That's also another trend. Trends are everywhere, but they also as I say can help you think critically as well. Okay, my next one, number four is to use social media to your advantage. So follow certain accounts on on social media so that then you'll basically get naturally updated on data. So then when it comes to going into the exam then you won't have to be trying to think oh what is the latest inflation figure far, etc. So I'm going to give you a couple of examples. Okay, I'm going to give you both Twitter and Instagram. Instagram first start I would definitely start off at CSO Ireland. Yeah, here we are. So CSO Ireland in here now look at their look at their grid. Look, down here you can see that they often post pictures with numbers. So in here, this can be a really easy way simply to keep up with them. You can also see as well that in their stories in their highlights here. They also are sharing infographics now I'm. Okay, there we go. The labor force. The labor force survey Q2 2022 look at this I'm always intrigued with this figure. We have the highest number of people in employment ever in the history of the state two and a half million, two and a half million people. This particular picture by the way, was the one one of them that I presented the Institute of banking two weeks ago. It's this is exactly what an economist does is that they take data that's out there, they help explain it to an audience or in my case I'm explaining, like in this case, I was taking this and then I drill down into where the employment shortages were. I talked about where the fastest growing of employment was. I mentioned springboard as a government initiative to spill the skills gap. I spoke about hidden employment. I spoke about push and pull factors, the factors that could make certain employment risky, who was letting people go, where those people were going, like that's my job. Your job, on the other hand, is to simply understand the nuts and bolts of how this works and by just following these accounts on Instagram. Then you then just appear in your feed and you don't have to like get into the, you know, really, really try to get grips with all this. The fact that it's there and in front of you, and as you're going through your feed, it just goes in. Also, I find like this number over here is interesting. Q2 2020 second quarter. So second quarter 2020 we were in the teeth of lockdown. 61 million hours were worked per week. And that is up by a third. That is a third. Another 20 on top of that was worked in Q2 2022. So it just shows you how the pandemic, and well, not the pandemic, but the lockdown really slowed down the amount of hours worked, which of course, of course beyond no one, then we could go into another conversation all around how the labor market was pulled back up by government supports and all that sort of thing. Okay, so there are some of the stories that they talk about. They also have jobs, jobs there as well that they mentioned and other things. So what I would do is just have a think about what type of of accounts that you can follow there on on Instagram. When it comes to Twitter, what I'm going to do is I am going to point out to you what I would follow is the hashtag LC economics. And there's some just people who tweet about this all the time. Okay, all the time. This is a Caroline McKels woman actually know very well she's somebody that introduced me to truly my fellow author for positive economics. So you can see here, she did this super job up here of explaining with post it's all of what happened in the budget. She does is often does this she does a super, super job of that. So that can be, that's certainly one to scroll on down here. Let me go down again here, right. Energy. This is another teacher there. I might in fact even be here tonight. And dear mechanic often tweets as well and he talks about energy price inflation across the OECD and he shows you here where Europe is. Where is Ireland? There we are Ireland is slightly higher. So, and he often often quote so if you look at LC economics and you can take a look there at the various different accounts then that you might go on to study. So, I'll often tweet on that on that one as well. Anyway, there's loads more loads, loads more in there. Oh, this one as well. The results of our back to school strategies Q&A or Insta. Okay. Then, yeah, there's loads loads in there. So that's that's what I would say given the context of forever tonight, check out different accounts on Instagram and just follow them. And then similarly on and hashtag LC economics and so leaving certain I was just going to put that there into the chat there as well. Where are we gone? Yeah, I'll just pop in there. Okay, that's the hashtag that I suggest that you check out. Okay, and then for my final one is more so to do with exam questions now. And what I think it's a very good time management technique in general to do this is when you're doing exam questions do so in timed conditions, even as early as early as you can. And I would say this for three reasons right number one is that if you actually set a timer and you try to write a question, write the answer to a question under under a period of time. Okay, actually, let me roll back a bit. Practice any question in time conditions if you practice your homework. In fact, if you can set a timer and say right, I am going to try to do this particular question in 20 minutes to 25 minutes. And then, see how you get on. Here's what it gets. Here's the benefit to doing that number one to get used to time pressure. And of course, when you're in your mocks, when you're in your Christmas test, when you're in your leaving search itself, it's time pressure can be something that worries people. Now, practice makes perfect like anything time pressure can you can totally get used to that. And if you try with your homework, it's certainly help. The second thing I would say is that it helps you focus your mind. Again, it stops the kind of like, oh, you know I'm just actually thinking now like do I will I watch this Netflix later on or will I not or I'm going to a GM action on the weekend. I want to win. You know, it just stops your mind from wondering if you're under a period of time pressure. Again, it's something that I do a lot even to this day. And the third thing is it helps you with your writing speed. So often I've had people ask me how do I write faster, and I would say you don't have to write faster in an exam condition at the same time. A good way to learn how to write faster is take a piece of text right so Right, I was emcee for an event in Galway a couple of weeks ago, focusing on female entrepreneurship and they produce this booklet right so let's say here's, here's a page of this book. If I wanted to learn how to write faster. I would simply open up. I would open up this page and I would literally write what's here as fast as possible. I would first think about what's there because that's the key thing I would not I would just write this as fast as possible. And then I would look at the next page and I would on another day and I'm writing as fast as possible. And then you just train your hand to get used to moving faster. That separate that's a whole other part that's a whole other thing to learn how to do as distinct to learning how to answer questions more quickly. And that per another day to be able to come up with answers more quickly that's that's a different party of brain that that you can train when it comes to writing faster, just practice that first. But when you're under time conditions then you kind of have that feeling okay I need to do this as quickly as I can. So it can also help you in that regard so it keeps your mind focused it helps you get used to time pressure and it helps you increase your writing speed for all those reasons. And of course the other benefit of this is that then you don't spend as long studying is because if you can actually take out of where you're not being productive. Well and just increase the amount of time that you are being productive it leaves more time for time off, rest, being with your friends, chilling out, etc. So if you learn how to be as productive as you can with the time that you're going to put in. And two key things I've said there will help you do that number one is focusing on learning objectives rather than time. And the second one is this, if you do that as well if you focus on right I'm going to set x period of time to do x to do white ask, and then see how you get on. The last thing that that will help you do as well as it will certainly give you a chance to be able to understand how well you estimate how long something will take you. That is also what it will do for you as well. So on that note, I'm going to stop there it's just five to eight. So I'm going to stop there and I'm just going to see if there are any questions I'm just going to stop sharing my screen there. And I'm just going to stop. Yeah. All right. So I'm now if you want to pop in any questions feel free to do that. If there's anything there that you want to put in chat, feel free to do it there either. And I'm going to answer as many as I can I'm also just going to check over here as well just to make sure if there's anything that have. Oh, sorry. I'm saying sorry to you which you can see what I'm saying sorry for. So I'm just going to check here as well if there is any of anything here that I need to get back to and. Oh, okay, okay. Yeah, first question in here is, and how have I, what do you recommend as regards sleep. Okay, that's a little bit left to center but you're happy to take that. Right, here's what I would say about sleep is I actually use a sleep app. I'm not going to necessarily mention which one they are where they are. What I would say is that the sleep app has shown me my own patterns of when and when I'm better off going to sleep. When I'm just also chose me the regularity of times that I wake up, which would be pretty standard during the week. And what it particularly shows me and this I find very interesting is it shows me the connection between the amount of sleep I've had and the amount of energy that I'm likely to have as a result. And that is really, I suppose again being the economist seeing the trend and also being somebody who likes to see a metric, and also somebody that is always likes to see the results of something that I'm going to work on. It actually just shows me the increase in my own ability to do whatever it is, whether it is whether it's studying work or whether it's like I did a cycle at the weekend and I did one for charity actually for prostate cancer on Saturday was 115 kilometers. I hope the cycle I've ever done in my life, but the, it's whether no matter what I'm doing, it does actually show me the connection between the two so what I would say is, for anybody who wants to improve their sleep is simply get a sleep app, there's paid ones out there, there's paid ones out there but just get a sleep app and it will prompt you to observe what what you're doing and the impact of the decisions that you make. And I actually think that can help. It will certainly help you learn more about yourself anyway. That's for sure. And even if the sleep app that I use is pure nonsense, even if it like, even if it doesn't work even if it's the, but it says that it's built on doesn't work. It's, it is actually educating me more about sleep and it's making me sleep better. Now I'd be a good sleeper but isn't better in terms of the regularity and the amount of time, and all a few other things as well. I personally am feeling the benefit of it. So that's what I would say. Thanks for the question though. I didn't expect that one. So I'm just going to check there if there is anything else. Okay, it doesn't look like it. Okay, so if there's anything else of course feel free you have my Instagram there. I'm on Twitter as well. Wherever you are I probably am too. And so feel free to check in at any stage and also we will be following up our next webinar is going to be in December and it is a deep dive into inflation. And that is what I'm going to be this time is going to be broad next time is going to be deep dive into inflation and we will follow up with an email to everybody with recording of this one and the link to register for the next one. Okay, so on that note everyone thank you so much indeed for being here with me as I say it is recorded we will be sending it out with the coming blog post, and I wish you all a lovely evening. Thank you again, and goodbye.