We, committed-really-busy women have a special ability to keep doing many different tasks at a time…. We study, work, follow our family life, travel and are entrepreneurs, while we keep an eye on our career….

It might happen, when we have a real bad time, that we wonder how wonderful it would be…. maybe…to be a hairdresser, a shop assistant in an ice-cream shop, or a public officer in a not well defined role within an institution. But… then, we go back to our origins and to our day-to-day commitments and realize that we cannot do without our i-phone, and our stressing complete life, so we have to do the most of our time and avoid the word “problems”….

The first thing we need to know is that we are able to manage EVERYTHING… It is just a matter of “education”, and nerves-training….

I don’t know how often it happens to other women, but I’ve counted till 20 different “tasks” accomplished in one hour: The most “complete” time in a day is the morning…. When one has just waken up. Energy is just there, waiting for the coffee to show…. And nothing seems impossible…

A typical hour in a typical day would say as a routine that:

1) I have a shower; 2) I wake up my child and 3) I help her to get dressed and be tidy; 4) I get prepared and 5) I have breakfast; 6) I prepare the snack for my child (break time) and something quick for lunch for me; 7) I get dressed 8) I wash my teeth and 9) I apply a quick make up; 10) I take my child to the kindergarten; 11) I reply to my mobile phone while I walk back to the office; 12) I buy fresh milk and bread in the way; 13) I give instructions while I 14) check whether the antivirus has worked as the day before I had to call our computer assistant; 15) I ring up the cleaner so the office is perfect for the meeting in the afternoon; 16) I write down on the Agenda the commitments of the day; 17) I pay for salaries; 18) I write an email to the representative of the parents at school to confirm I’m aware of the school trip and will prepare the full kit; 19) I call the dance school to explain I’ll go at lunch time to pay for the quarter fees; 20) I register at the so interesting Newsletter my favorite editor is proposing…

One hour has gone and I’ve still done nothing…. Nothing? But, wait!! We made a list…. Yes, but… oh, my god!! I’d better start “working” now. I still have to write a report on the new legislation in Hungary, which will affect some clients of mine, as a minimum taxation on volumes has been introduced…I have a meeting at 11 with technicians in charge of our new Platform for clients, another one at 13 (lunch time) with our tax advisor and at 15.00 with a client coming from Naples: we have to work on the  project for his new factory in Croatia. And give feedback to phone calls and emails in the meantime…. I have scheduled a conference call with my partner in Slovenia at 16.00. One of my clients is sending goods to the store in Slovenia and I have to make sure the documents have been checked!!! Plus… plus… plus….I promised Sofia I’ll take her to the birthday party of her best friend…. Honestly, I’ve phoned my mother in law…. I’ll take Sofia to the party but I’ll go away, because I need to have the car serviced for the day after…. I’m leaving for Budapest and need to arrive at the airport…. I’ll need to take some time to review the documents I’ve prepared for this business trip… I cannot fail…

How will I manage to do everything?

The reply is: “NO MATTER HOW… I WILL”

To be honest, I think that the secret is establishing priorities… once we know how important and urgent a business is and how long it will take to sort it out, we can make sure that every other single issue is dealt by with.-

My i-phone will be ringing all the time… but I can silence it, filter calls and give replies as soon as I have them; it makes nonsense to give replies if they are no definitive… I can say something like… “I’m busy at the moment… I’ll call you back…” or…” I’m analyzing the situation… give me a couple of hours/days…” … it’s important to give our counterparty the feeling we are aware of him/her, and are working to make him/her feel well… In the meantime, we will work to give definitive replies, to gain confidence, to be efficient, and make our clients and partners rely on us….

Although our clients and partners are in different countries, we know that we have common interests and we all want to achieve the same result, so this is going to take us far away….

We will have to assist clients in every part of the world by making them aware that we can service them just if they trust us… we have to make them feel well cared and part of a family… where we, together with our employees, partners and resources are offering to help…. It’s not a matter of timetable, of “country hour”, but a matter of trust and experience…. We have to be available, precise, encouraging, understanding and very professional…. If we can accomplish 20 different tasks in one hour, we will succeed in dealing with many different assignments, cultures, needs…. It’s just a matter of priorities and reliance.

As for our private life, we are normal mums…we cannot forget that we are working normal mums… our children will have less time to share with us, but a high quality… our children will have to be independent, self-confident, hard workers…. They will play with other children at the playground, but will understand from us the value of growing up in a protected environment, taking advantage of our experience… learning from our achievements, and our happiness…

So, this is all: we just need to respect our commitments, to be honest, direct and, basically, to keep being ourselves… Our clients, partners and other contacts will learn to know us… and to trust us… only if we give them the possibility to do it… if we prove to be respectful and serious working women…. Even if we are human beings and might have also other needs… but this is kept to ourselves… it is our special secret… we need to have our personal sphere… where we have time only for ourselves and we dedicate our life to us…although it is one thought a day…. Believe me… it will help us to be ourselves, in spite of the “jungle” outside claiming for us!!!