I had this experience when i was working on a book and i had to spend considerable amount of time every week on one example. The book had 100 examples so it took me two years to complete the book but the experience was amazingly satisfying because i was able to justify the effort, going slow and steady.
The other thing i noticed is the increase in quality when you do less but give more time to think. Keeping the problem in your mind create innovative solutions. Which is impossible if you want to just hack up everything one weekend.
My personal favorite is keeping a point system for all the good things you want to do in your day and add them up for weeks and at the end of the month, check the total and see where are you lacking behind. What percentage of life you are actual able to live the way you want. Haven't got to 100% yet but above 60% i give a pat in the back.