The best thing to do is not always the most logical. After taking care of an urgent errand, I thought that as long as I’m here I’ll continue on to a less urgent errand that was on my list, since I was already halfway there. It seemed more efficient to take care of everything at once and save time on going back there later.
It made sense, except that something was not quite right about it. Saving time has to include more than just getting things done. Such a solely goal-oriented focus turns the doer into an efficient energy-machine, but something about the relationship of subject to object goes wrong.
Efficiency should create a sense of mastery and a sense of autonomous decision-making. Your choices should be something you want to do, even if they are hard to do. But it should be important enough to you that it’s worth the effort.
My time is important to me, but ensuring that I have time for my ‘morning routine’ of self-care is more important to me. Delaying those activities beyond a certain point threatened my sense of self-mastery over my life.
I was willing to interrupt my schedule to take care of the urgent matter only because it was urgent. Once it was finished, the second errand did not justify the same level of sacrifice.
I stopped, went home, and took care of the second errand later in the day. I felt good about that. It felt like the right thing to do.
Choice has to incorporate logic, but only as one consideration among many. Your decisions are something you have to be at peace with. Your choices are your freedom to direct and fashion your life.