I have given up smoking before briefly, and it did terrible things to my career. When I was a journalist it was almost part of the job description that you had to smoke. There were always a couple of journos huddled outside the office entrance puffing away, and that was the place where you got the gossip. If you didn’t smoke you were out of the loop.

When I worked at a large PR agency, I found that a surefire way to get the attention of the seniors bods was to time my smoking breaks with theirs. It gave me the chance to chat with them, and as people tend to like people who share the same vices, it also helped me to make friends with the people that had some power.

At industry events, the most candid conversations often happen around an ashtray. If I give up smoking, I’ll have no chance to find out what certain people REALLY think.

But for the sake of the wife and kids, it makes sense to give up the evil weed.

At least if I keep drinking, I won’t become a complete social pariah. I have a theory that if you want to make friends and influence people you should share their bad habits, whether this is smoking, drinking, or a chocolate addiction. And at least I’ll still have two out of three vices to help me in my career.

Another option is to have healthy things in common with key influencers. So if you see a strange man running after prime minister David Cameron on one of his often-televised jogs in the future, that might well be me. And if he’s smoking a fag at the same time, it definitely is.