Not plans for next year alone — when she’ll be laying the groundwork to fight a fierce election in March 2019 — but plans for the next decade.

Plans for a thriving NSW that could compete not only in Australia but in the rest of the world on things like jobs, transport, education and investment.

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“On these formal international visits you get a sense of how fast everyone else is moving,” she says, gesturing to one of China’s richest cities. “If we’re not on that train, and having a sense of our place in the world, we’ll be left behind. There’s no doubt about it.”

This is a refrain Berejiklian repeats often: “I’m determined we won’t be left behind” or “If we don’t get this right, we’ll be left behind”. A premier who has had the benefits of serving time in key ministerial portfolios of treasury and transport, as well as a long stint on the opposition benches, she is acutely conscious of NSW’s place in the order of things, and obsessive about its long-term future. She’s watched the state come from being at the back of the nation’s economic pack back in 2011 to top of the class, and she has no interest in squandering the results.

Berejiklian has a vision for Sydney as a truly world city — one that should have the best infrastructure, transport and job opportunities that stretch right through the state. Creating this is something she views as a lifetime’s work that never ends. Berejiklian doesn’t like taking time off. She has to be pressed by her office to take leave when she can get it. This week, after four days on an international trade mission driving investment, she was hungry to get back to her office.

“I just can’t wait to get back to it — there’s so much we have to do,” she remarks in Manila on the last day of the mission.

“Being away puts into even sharper focus all you want to achieve.”

While travelling overseas, she uses the hotel gym, then works through until late in the evening in back-to-back meetings and briefings.

Now 10 months into the top job, her reputation as a workhorse precedes her. When Berejiklian returns after a Christmas break, it will be almost 12 months until the 2019 election.

Just seven seats away from losing a majority, and with the federal Coalition on the nose, the challenge will be laid bare from the outset.

Berejiklian has an anxious deputy in John Barilaro, whose seat of Monaro is on a 2 per cent knife’s edge.

This anxiety was on full display when he defied the Premier a week ago to say Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull should quit.

But asked how she’ll approach next year, Berejiklian tells Saturday Extra “the challenge for me doesn’t change just because there’s an election date”.

“The community sees through that opportunism. If you only lead for the next few months or the next year, that’s when you buy into the populism and the state will go backwards. I’m focused on my 2025 jobs target,” she says.

She admits she’s political too: “I’m political where I have to be — I’m not shying away from that,” she says.

“But as a leader, I don’t think about the next month, I think about the next decade and to make sure (there are) jobs and infrastructure and what are we doing for getting where we need to be.”

It’s through this prism that she viewed this week’s overseas mission, with a sharp focus on China’s economic value to NSW.

Exports from the state to China totalled $7.2 billion in 2016-17 and the number of visitors from China to NSW has increased from 285,000 a year to 700,000 in just six years. Last year, they spent $3 billion in NSW.

In mostly back-to-back meetings, the Premier met with fin-tech and med-tech companies, signed a two-year tourism deal with South China’s biggest travel agency and made plans with the Guangdong Health and Family commission to enhance partnerships in medical research and innovation.

Flanked by Health Minister Brad Hazzard and newly appointed Secretary of the epartment of Premier and Cabinet Tim Reardon, the trio came away optimistic about the opportunities for the state in China.

But it was a visit that came against the politically sensitive backdrop of questions about Chinese political influence and Labor senator Sam Dastyari’s relationship with the world power. On the final day of Berejiklian’s visit, the editorial of the China Daily lashed the Australian government over remarks about Chinese influence.

In pointed remarks, the editorial said China played an “indispensable role in propelling Australia’s economy yet there remains an ugly stain on the generally rosy picture of ties”.

The issue was not raised in any of Berejiklian’s meetings, although she and her delegation were prepared for it. Dealing with China is, in this environment, a politically sensitive exercise, that in Dastyari’s case can go very wrong.

Local staff, who have over time witnessed many Australian leaders meet with Chinese officials, commented privately that Berejiklian had shown a natural diplomatic ease with her counterparts, including Guangdong governor Ma Xingrui, while handling the dealings with a clear professionalism.

Some commented privately that she’d set herself apart from others like Kevin Rudd in her ability to strike up a professional but natural rapport with leaders and find common ground in their visions for cities. Berejiklian used the Chinese meetings to push the opportunities for investment in the Western Sydney airport precinct.

It’s a project she sees as being key to her massive jobs target, her desire to deliver for the regions and indeed her legacy as premier.

Some ministers say the downside of Berejiklian’s workhorse tendencies is that she doesn’t do enough to sell herself and her ideas, leaving the public feeling like they don’t “know” her and what she stands for.

Asked how she would sell the outcomes of her China trip to the electorate, Berejiklian admits she doesn’t “shout things from the rooftop”. She wants people to just notice the results and sees herself as being outcomes focused.

“At the end of the day, people will see the jobs number. They won’t necessarily care how we got there,” she says.

“At the end of the day that’s how I’ll be judged. Is the economy going well? What is the standard of living? Can I have access to education and health? These are the outcomes.”

She is aware that her challenge remains bringing the whole state along on her narrative of hard work and success, while so many battle cost of living pressures.

“A lot of households are still under pressure,” she says. “I want every community to feel they get a fair share of success — that they’re feeling personally what NSW is feeling on a macro level.

“Unless you feel you’re getting something back as well, you will feel disengaged and disempowered.”

She says each time she spruiked how well the economy was doing, she was conscious that “anyone under pressure thinks she doesn’t understand me”.

Making time to spend in the regions has been a strong focus, as has sharing out money and projects.

“We have a lot of mega-projects, but we also have 500 projects that are small to medium making a difference to the community,” she says.

Since coming to office, she has done 20 community morning teas in the regions.

Her staff remark how she’ll stay for hours after the scheduled time because she agrees to do photos with whoever wants them.

As she wraps up her first year Berejiklian says she’s proud of what she’s achieved.

She’s cleaned up legacy problems from the Baird government, and has announced a series of cost of living measures, including a road toll package and green slip changes.

She’ll stick to her guns on her $2 billion-plus stadiums package, despite coming under fire for the scale of the spend. “To give a frank assessment, my colleagues and I feel quite confident and buoyed by how things are going,” she says.

“We think the government has its groove, things are going well.”

She is likely to embark on a ministerial reshuffle in the near future and sees many parts of government she wants to fix.

“I keeping thinking I’ve got to get my hands on this particular thing or that. In transport and treasury I made a good fist of tidying things up when I was there. Now in this job, having the benefit of oversight and exposure, there are things I definitely want to fix.”