Last year I didn’t have a two week holiday. Yes, I took time off, but only a few days at a time. By the end of the year I was completely exhausted. Knackered. It was mostly my own fault in that in addition to my two jobs at Biteback and LBC I would take on other work too, and found it very difficult to say no to people. There always seemed to be a good reason to say yes. One of my new year’s resolutions was to learn to say no. And when on holiday, not to do work.

Coming back to work after a 16 day break over Christmas was a bit of a revelation. Not only was I looking forward to it, I felt refreshed, envigorated and energised. Presenting my first show of the year on Monday showed me how tired I had become before Christmas and how my tiredness was affecting my work in general. It also meant that it took far longer than usual to recover from minor coughs and colds. It probably contributed to catching them in the first place.

I am afraid one decision I have made is to discontinue my weekly ConservativeHome diary column which I started writing last April. It’s a shame, as I enjoyed writing it and winding a few people up along the way, but anyone who has ever written a diary column will know that it’s not just a matter of sitting down for a few minutes and bashing it out – believe it or not it takes quite a lot of thought and creativity. I usually wrote well in excess of 1,000 words, and I did wonder about continuing but only writing two or three snippets a week. But when people have been used to something else I decided it would attract a lot of negative comment if I reduced the word count.

Anyway, I wanted to put on the record that Paul Goodman, the editor of ConHome and a friend for more years than either of us care to remember, has been very understanding and there has been no falling out between us. I may still write the odd piece, but he understands the reasons for me standing down and I am grateful to him for giving me the opportunity in the first place. ConHome is a great site and still knocks the socks off its competitor sites.

Paul has compiled what I suppose is a ‘greatest hits’ column as my final contribution, which you can read HERE.