Busy-ness leaves no room for guilt

The following situation is fairly typical.

• (a) I have a number of urgent and important tasks to perform. These are not scheduled events. The timing is my own responsibility, but the expectation of others is that I will be giving them some priority. Current examples include overseeing the process of circuit amalgamation especially regarding finance, staffing and mission; visiting fringe members; producing a church web site; visiting assorted groups to promote our parent and toddler service.
• (b) I have a day or two when the scheduled events leave little or no room for anything else. For example, Saturday consisted of a churches together prayer meeting, a coffee morning, an afternoon of street pastor training, a trip to the supermarket and an evening writing sermons. Sunday consisted of a morning service, an afternoon service for the bereaved followed by tea, and belatedly washing up our own Sunday lunch pots and pans. Admittedly the evening could have been usefully employed, but wasn't - unless you count a puzzle, a short walk and an episode of "House" as useful.

These two factors combine as follows. I have failed to do any of the tasks in paragraph (a), but I don't feel in the slightest guilty because I have been engaged in all the activities described in (b). What I need to realise is that "I've been busy" is not a good excuse for non-achievement. It is my responsibility to take enough control of my diary that I make time for the urgent and important unscheduled tasks. Either that, or I don't promise to do in the short term what I know I will not have time to do.