Do you want your life to be rich rather than full? I do.

For several months now I have been trying to figure out how to live with less (less possessions, less commitments, less worry), and one voice stood out from all the material I was reading about it: Leo Babauta's Zen Habits.

I could not describe this website better than the way the author himself does on the Zen Habits 'about' page:

'Zen Habits is one of the top blogs on the Internet, and covers: achieving goals, productivity, being organized, GTD, motivation, eliminating debt, saving, getting a flat stomach, eating healthy, simplifying, living frugal, parenting, happiness, and successfully implementing good habits.'

I have been finding Zen Habits inspiring on several occasions recently, and full of tips for so many of the areas in my life demanding my attention. If you find yourself on a similar quest, I encourage you to head over to Zen Habits and start by sampling the most popular content listed at the bottom of the homepage.

Leo Babauta has recently written a book entitled 'The Power of Less', which tagline embodies exactly the kind of skill I want to develop:

'the fine art of limiting yourself to the essential… in business and in life'

The Power of Less by Leo Babauta is out now on Amazon.com, and is available to pre-order on Amazon.co.uk (publication date in the UK is 12 February 2009).

And if you order the book before the end of January 1 2009 you also get to choose a free ebook or audio podcast.

The publication of the book has also been marked by a the Power of Less New Year Challenge that you can join to commit publicly to develop a new habit next month. I have chosen to focus ten minutes a day on establishing and maintaining a badly needed bedtime routine, so that instead of falling asleep more often than not while reading or watching TV I will focus every night for ten minutes on:

• taking out my contact lenses
• brushing my teeth
• flossing
• laying out my clothes for the next day
• …and going to bed!

I will report my progress daily here and on the Power of Less Challenge forum. I tried to pick up this habit last September but it did not last. I am now confident that committing and reporting publicly will help me succeed.

The reason was that they were gifts, and even if I had read them and was unlikely to read them again in the next ten years, I could not give them away.

So I entered all of them into my LibraryThing account, and tagged them with 'read', 'gifts' and 'donated'. Because I'd read them, they were gifts, and tomorrow they are going to the Oxfam Books and Records that is very conveniently located just opposite the Central London location where I am working today and tomorrow.

Dr B. joined me and got rid of all his outdated IT reference manuals. We only kept unread books, some reference material, recipe books and recent travel guides.

I have taken a few pictures of the volume of books 'before' and 'after':

• all our books (unsorted) before decluttering;
• all our books (sorted by type) before decluttering;
• all the books after decluttering.

And yes I know, books are not clutter per se, but when you are fighting for space and space does not come cheap, I am sorry but they have to go.

I cannot quite put my finger on why I have enjoyed reading all seven Harry Potter novels. I can see why they have such mass appeal, yes, but I thought I was immune to that. Plus, magic and wizards and shit? Yawn. A book with over 300 pages? Fear.

I don't know, either I have the literary sensibility of a seven year old (with the emotional development to match) or it must have something to do with the affection you develop for the main characters. I noticed this the other day when I kept being moved while watching Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, and not just because it was playing on the HD-DVD XBox add-on that Dr B. got from his brother for Christmas (days before all but one of the major movie studios pulled from the HD-DVD format and embraced rival technology Blu-Ray exclusively – grrr).

I have now just watched A Year in the Life of J.K. Rowling, a documentary that Dr B. had recorded over Christmas (repeated on Friday 18th January at 20:00 on ITV 2), and it gave me a little more insight into this, as I understood that the author is absolutely passionate about her characters, so much so that she has constructed in her mind their whole future, because she felt she needed to know how they would end up. And not at all in case she runs short of money and is talked into writing book number eight, of course not.

Mi piacciono i libri di Harry Potter.
I like Harry Potter books.
Literally: 'To-me are-liked the books of Harry Potter'.

If you want to find out more

• 'I like' is expressed in Italian by 'To me is liked'. This means that if you like more than one thing you must change the 'is' to 'are', which is done by changing 'piace' to 'piacciono'. A bit complicated, but it's an expression you'll hear several times a day so it's worth learning it.
• The genitive case (i.e. when you want to widely express a concept of 'belonging to' like 'Ann's job', 'Picasso's creativity', or 'Harry Potter books') is very easy in Italian. You invert the words from English to Italian, and add 'of' in between the two: 'Il lavoro di Ann', 'La creatività di Picasso', and 'I libri di Harry Potter'.

I have enjoyed immensely the book itself. I have just put it down and am still feeling a bit emotional after reading the last few pages.

But better than that was lying in bed next to Dr B., each with our own book, TV off, not a sound in the flat, racing each other to who would finish it first, and who would discover more hints on how the story would end.

I think I won the former challenge, and he did the latter.

And I have just come back from Tesco across the road with the children's edition – so we don't mix them up, I claimed, but really it's because it matches the previous six in the box in the back of a cupboard. A bookcase? That would mean dusting, so no thanks.

Two years ago I was pining for not being able to buy Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince straight away. This time I was not too bothered, but it was going for a fiver if you spent over fifty pounds – which I was going to anyway, as we are having a birthday boy over from France for pre-Duckie drinks tonight, and he treated us for dinner last night at Amici, and we were going to buy champagne anyway.

Great. I have just added another 607 pages on my ever-expanding reading list, and all I seem to be able to do these days on public transport is play solitaire on my mobile.

Red Nose Day is the main way the charity Comic Relief raises money for countries in Africa and disadvantaged people in the UK.

There is special TV programming (the main sponsor is the BBC) and fundraisers.

So today I am wearing Dr B.'s old M&S grey suit (trousers are a bit short) and shirt and tie because to mark the occasion it's dress-up Friday at work (normally, ripped jeans and tatty t-shirts are de rigueur) with a reminder to donate.

I am doing my bit at work but frankly, my minuscule effort that is put to shame by Mike from Troubled Diva, who has selected one hundred amusing tales from over three hundred submitted blog entries – in a week, start to finish! He even used up some leave from work to edit, coordinate and organise the publishing process.

I am in awe. The man is an inspiration. You can get your copy at Shaggy Blog Stories. I just have. And the book's publishers, Lulu.com, have offered to donate their share of the profits to Comic Relief. Well done.

Oh, and today I have also learnt a new word, when a colleague told me to go check out the women in the team on the top floor who all came to work dressed as flappers. With an F.