No One Would Have Dared Ask Me to Go to a Lapdancing Club ; Louise Patten has Held Down High-Powered City Jobs, a Successful Marriage and Now a Hobby Writing Thrillers. All Thanks to Self- Belief and Careful Time Management

Summary

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THE few women who reach the top in business master more than the rules of the game; they conquer time itself. Louise Patten, 55, former FTSE company chairman, currently non-executive director of Marks & Spencer and wife of the former Conservative Cabinet minister John Patten, can measure in hours relationships as well as work. She has calculated, for instance, that having children will precisely require four extra hours daily during the week, and six hours per day at weekends.

There is efficient time in the day and then there is "dead time", such as "sitting in front of the television thinking that you really ought to go to bed". Lady Patten has no television in her London flat. The evenings are generally less useful than the mornings, so she and her husband tend to go to bed early.

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No One Would Have Dared Ask Me to Go to a Lapdancing Club ; Louise Patten has Held Down High-Powered City Jobs, a Successful Marriage and Now a Hobby Writing Thrillers. All Thanks to Self- Belief and Careful Time Management

When their daughter Mary-Claire was younger, Louise made sure that she lived near her work and her daughter's school so that no time was lost commuting and she was on hand for any domestic emergency.

Later on in life, she located an undeveloped lump of time which was her train journey, several times a week, to the family home in Somerset. Obviously she was not going to gaze out of the window. First she taught herself Classical Greek and l...

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