thanks for the answer, andy, and also the clear choice of words. I didn't mean this post to become an application for pity. Interesting, though, that the term "burnout" is quite likely to trigger responses which state some resistance to the idea, that there might be some connection between "the book" and the temptation to do too much.

To avoid a misunderstanding, this was not meant as an anti-GTD-post at all. I value the system for its flexibility, for the idea of project- and next-action-lists, and for the support it provides for weekly reviews and long-term planning. Experiencing symptoms of stress (to use a non-psycho-term - it sounded worse than it is) just made me think of exactly what you recommended: That health should get a higher priority in my life.
I have to add, however, that I am still startled by the simple recipe: "it can't be the book". Especially on higher levels, I don't find much that I want to change. "Doing all this shit" is not how I would describe what I do for a living; I really like my work, and yes, I even have a family (which is top priority as well).
Just because I find creative work so rewarding, I am in constant temptation to forget about the time, and write until the morning, for example, or forget to lunch, when I am in the office. All I meant to say was that GTD in its current version might not be the last word about how to do time-management:

1) Most people on this forum seem to have clear limits set to them by their work. Frequently, I don't. In my eyes, this makes it a necessity for me to think about fixed intervals and such to introduce a bit of regularity.

Many writers (including academics) have problems defining their work in terms of next actions. Projects, yes, but "write 1/4 of chapter 4" ? Today, it might be 1/9 of chapter 4, tomorrow, 1/20, at the end of the week, 7/9 of chapter 4, in thirty minutes. This often results in doing the actual work outside the GTD system, and using lists only for projects and next actions of things that might keep you from working. There is an interesting post about that on the forum "The efficient academic", just to state that it is not a "beginner's error"

2) how do you organize recurrent, complex activities? As writers usually complain, many creative activities do not fit that well into "next actions". why should I go back to the basics (I read this book quite often now), when writing a list of these tasks might help?

3) Even if I add things like "relax > 5 times daily" to the task-list, it is very hard with GTD to get done with all the item on the lists. These are open lists, so by definition they always refill. I find them very handy for everything that I want to do during the week or later, but adding a daily, simple, closed list (only a few items!) to the system makes it much easier to define the minimum to be achived on a given day, and to remind myself about regular tasks: It may be an odd habit, but I feel better when I can tick these (important, regular) items off my list.

I started this thread to discuss a few ideas that helped me tremendously during the last weeks. Now I wonder, however, why it should be so important to work with the system "as advertised": What are the changes that you introduced into your personal GTD setup - especially, if you have to do (or are allowed to do) creative tasks?

Mark