Book Review - Thoughtload

Meet Author Liane Davey

I discovered Liane last week on a LinkedIn live interview by Lynnaire Johnston. You can find Liane on her website and her LinkedIn. "Thoughtload" was released in May 2026 and is her fourth published book. I'm looking forward to checking on the other three! 

Liane has created a community website, full of resources, that you'll want to spend time getting to know. It's available on her book landing page. You can find her book on Amazon, available in Kindle, Audible, and paperback. I'm a big fan of audiobooks and loved that the author read the book. It was very engaging, full of her personality and warm humor. 

Who Is This For
Liane regularly coaches and speaks with teams, so much of the focus was on a team perspective. I was still able to find plenty of useful nuggets as a solopreneur (as would an author). I was definitely thinking of nonprofit teams I've worked with while reading. Even as solopreneurs, we're working with clients and occasionally teams. I found the majority of the content very useful.

Focal Points of "Thoughtload"
The author focuses on three basic premises:

• Attention/Focus
• Emotions
• Energy

I paid most attention in the Attention and Energy sections. The Emotions segment is certainly useful when juggling team personalities, but she offered many examples of useful considerations for personal relationships as well. 

Focus Fine Points
Points that resonated with me:

• Liane urged a focus thought session on the outcomes you or your team are aiming for.
  • What would it take to make meaningful progress in 6 months?
  • Is this what customers want from me?
  • Take a photo or create a Canva design of your outcome goals to save as your phone's wallpaper for regular visibility.
• Calendar review
  • What activities are essential vs trivial/non-essential? (do you need all of those meetings?)
  • Create 3 Priority Lists
    • Category 1: the most important, tied to your outcomes
    • Category 2: tied to helping others meet their outcomes, items you're counted on to deliver
    • Category 3: basic admin tasks that simply need maintained
  • Ensure activities are important, urgent (delegate as able), targeted, and essential.
• Focus results: I loved this framing.
  • ​If you focus on activities, you become a busy person.
  • If you focus on outputs, you become a productive person.
  • If you focus on outcomes, you become an effective person. 

Energy Fine Points
Schedule set-up

• Focus & Forge time: scheduled at the strongest, most focused, energetic part of your day; no more than 2 hour blocks broken into two 45 minute sessions with a 15 minute break in between.
• Connect & Collaborate time: may be afternoons when your energy is a bit less, more scattered. This is a good spot for your Category 2 activities when you're productive but your best thought time isn't necessarily needed - possibly client calls or tasks assisting others. 
• Tidy & Tend time: low energy demand activities but they continue to move you forward. This is a good spot for your Category 3 activities, admin or routine sorts of tasks.

Get to the Point
I definitely recommend "Thoughtload" by Liane Davey! It's not a long read, I love hearing the author read the book, and she offers so many additional resources including blog posts, worksheets, and even a printable planner. Give it a try!

Your Turn!
Reality check: 1) Do you find you focus on activities, outputs, or outcomes? 2) Have you assessed your day's energy and are in alignment with your priority list? 

My turn: 

• I'll admit, I'm amazing with activities which typically do lead to outputs. Outcomes? I'm working on more focus there. It's also a matter of how you frame "output" vs "outcomes" I propose. I am much better at being "productive" vs "effective"!
• Liane's category references line up better than many "time blocking" efforts I've run into. I naturally tend to schedule as she suggests, but I'm also paying more attention to outcome tasks for my energy. 

How about you? Let's Chat or message me on LinkedIn or Substack!

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