Tell us a little about your professional history, and about your motivation to do what you are doing.

My name is Aurore Bui, I am the founder of Softweb, a social incubator and of Soft-Space, a coworking space focused on creativity and quality of life. Soft-Space was the first kids-friendly coworking space to be created in Switzerland, back in 2015.

After a first career as an IT engineer, I specialized in 2009 on social innovation. It was becoming crucial for me to use my skills and inspiration to do something positive for the community. The idea for creating Softweb came from a number of sources: meeting with inspiring philanthropreneurs based in Geneva, discovering the power of social entrepreneurship, travelling and … becoming a mother.

I write a chronicle on social innovation and act as an international speaker. In 2017, I have been selected among the 100 people that make Suisse Romande as part of the Forumdes100 movement, which is a huge recognition of the past 8 years spent building these projects and trying to develop the social entrepreneurship field in Switzerland.

Apart from the social impact of projects, I am very concerned and active in developing ways for women in general and mothers in particular to develop their skills and powers. Being a former representative for UN Women Switzerland, in charge of promoting the Women Empowerment’s Principles towards companies, I know how it’s meaningful for women themselves, but also for the society at large. This is why we developed a mentoring programme for women entrepreneurs, supported by the Swiss Confederation.

How it is to be so busy? What are your challenges?

I’m not sure of what the world “busy” encapsulates to me.

If busy is having tons of fascinating activities I could undertake today, then I’m definitely VERY busy.

But then, if you find your ways to “stay on top”, decide which are the actions you wanna be undertaking and the ones you should be delegating, planning for later or even… dropping, then being “busy” is just navigating in a flow of opportunities.

My kids are now 5 and 7. One of the key things for me is “how are my kids doing”. They are one of my barometers. If they seem to do well, then it’s a very good sign I’m not doing “too much” and using myself in a negative way. It’s not necessarily a matter of the time spent with them. It’s subtler than this. It’s definitely a matter of the “presence” with them, the time we can spend doing activities we love, the time we can talk and just be together in a positive way.

How do you cope with being constantly on the move?

My number #1 trick is meditation. Meditation is not only a technique: it’s a way of life. The very “flow” of my day, how I cope with pressure, the pleasure I have in doing things radically changes if I took even 5 mns in the morning to meditate.

Meditation came into my life in 2015 following a very harsh event in my personal life, which shook the entire universe I had been building upon. Meditation helped me becoming friend with myself, knowing what I need and what I want, and may be most importantly what I DON’T want. It helped me not being reactive to other’s needs and demands, but building my own way of being myself.

It’s also a key to not “judging” people who sometimes interfere in a negative way to your actions. They are themselves “doing the best they can” and trying to build their own paths. If you need something specific from them, you need to ask them, and eventually be prepared that they may say No.

What you would advise other busy people to do to help them live better?

One framework I use is a simple diagram where I put “impact” on one axis (does the activity fit into my personal mission, is it meaningful to me?) and “money” on the second axis. Then I try and put the various activities I have at hand into the diagram. The activities that are both meaningful and bring money come first. Then I can decide whether I focus on activities that will bring money (if this is what I need at this point of time) or longer-term meaningful activities. Finally, activities that are neither of them should be dropped! Do not tell me you don’t have any of those: there are always things we do because “we should”, “I’m just helping”, etc. My advice, just stop doing those! If you want to learn more: https://www.wikistage.org/comment-prioriser-vos-projets_a65c437d0/