Did you survive the festivities? We had a good one at Reed Towers, and enjoyed the patter of tiny feet around the estate. There’s nothing like having a midget for a butler, as W.C. Fields would say. I’m now also emerging from the seasonal sugar coma induced by all those Cadbury’s Heroes, mince pies and Christmas pudding, and raring to get back to work.

But first I’m going on a diet. I heard someone say on the radio that we typically consume 7,000 calories on December 25th, compared with 2,000 most other days. But I’m not talking about food. I’m going on an information diet.

I recently re-read chapter six of Tim Ferriss’s book The 4-Hour Workweek, looking for a solution to the information overload that’s currently taking over my life. The theory is good. His mantra – “eliminate, automate, liberate” – is like a super-efficient Dalek bent on galactic domination, but who wants enough spare time to spend the afternoon by the pool.

I have a lot more client work coming in at the moment, and am hiring more freelancers as a result (do get in touch if you’re a web developer or graphic designer!). I’m also doing more lecturing, developing new workshops, and writing a book. But I also want more time off, more holidays, and more time with friends this year. It doesn’t help me, my clients, or my work if I’m working at a Stakhanovite pace all the time. So – what to do?

• I’m starting by canceling magazine subscriptions. I discovered this year that I really don’t have time to read New Media Age or The Bookseller, and they have become poor value for money – and time. I can also get essential book trade news for free from Book2Book. If I’m interviewed or write for a magazine, they’ll send me a copy. Otherwise I can live without them.
• I no longer watch the news. A shocking admission from a news junkie, political anorak and current affairs obsessive. In recent months I’ve just found it all too depressing. I don’t need to know every twist and turn of the over-hyped credit crunch. I don’t want to know about the terrible things people do to each other. The only news is bad news, and it presents a skewed, negative version of the world that I don’t recognise or need. I stopped listening to the Today programme on Radio 4 this year, having finally lost patience with the sound of middle-class arched eyebrows in the morning, and feel much better for it. I used to buy a weekend newspaper, and have it lying around unread for a week before it went into the recycling. No more news. If something important is happening, someone will tell me. I can find out more on the Internet if it’s really fascinating.
• I cancelled email newsletters from as many places as possible and have kept only the most useful. I don’t need a daily digest of The Archers. I scan my Google feedreader every few days, and that has to do for keeping up with essential info. I know that I’ll hear from the people I follow on Twitter about any essential new development in social media.
• I’m quite short on the phone with people. Not with clients. But if you’re trying to sell me something, you’d better get to the point very quickly, and I expect you to have researched what I’m going to be interested in. I almost never buy print advertising.
• I’m batch-processing my life. I don’t have email or Skype on all the time. I deal with emails once a day, and use autoresponders so that people know my availability and can reach me if something genuinely urgent crops up outside of that time.
• I am – finally – getting a virtual PA, and outsourcing all sorts of admin and research work. Less information for me to process.
• Efficiency is good. Effectiveness is better. I’m focusing on the essential parts of my business that will develop and grow it. I have to let some things slide, ignore some of the demands on my time, and let other people take up the slack.

Join me. Cancel your subscriptions. Ignore the news. And treat yourself to a shredder this Christmas!