The best plan is to devote certain hours to it; if you do that, you will get through it with great ease.

I think you would do well to tell your Ministers that for the present you would be ready to receive those who should wish to see you between the hours of eleven and half-past one.

This will not plague you much, and will be sufficient in most cases for the usual business that is to be transacted.
I shall add to this a piece of advice.

Whenever a question is of some importance, it should not be decided on the day when it is submitted to you.

Whenever it is not an urgent one, I make it a rule not to let any question be forced upon my _immediate_ decision; it is really not doing oneself justice _de decider des questions sur le pouce_.