The Philosophy of Workflow Management

I enjoyed the post. I am currently working on implementing GTD; I think you have outlined the flaws in the system nicely.

One of my struggles is that I have a complicated home life. Rather than try to explain it all here, I'll give this summary: though I am an unmarried man, my workload is comparable to that of a single mother with a full-time job.

One of the things that appeals to me about GTD is the way it gives me a framework to keep track of what needs to be done. Even if I know that I have a lot of things that absolutely need to be done eventually, and it will take me weeks to get to them, I can collect inputs and track them in a logical fashion, to be dealt with as time permits.

It seems clear to me that a lot of my time away from the office is still "work" and not "life", but evenings and weekends are the only time I have for both "life" and non-office "work". I've been bothered lately by the challenges inherent in balancing these two non-office activities.

I guess the issue is this: I want to get my non-office "work" done efficiently to make room for life, but since I know it will take many weeks to "be done", what's a good way to strike a balance during the evenings and weekends in the meantime?

(Please note that I don't expect a thorough answer to this question, especially given the lack of background information here. I'm not even sure I should expect an answer at all; just posting this here has helped me to clarify my problem, and if nothing else, I hope it will help me to make progress on my own!)