Thank you for the suggestion. I think one of my challenges is at work. I have several projects I am managing and can potentially be working on any one of them at any time, and while some projects are a higher priority, they are all expected to keep moving forward so sometimes it feels like I need to find the tasks that help keep all the plates spinning at any given time.
Consider that actively working on multiple projects kinda-simultaneously, when you don't have to, is likely to cost you more in context switching than you're gaining by choosing the perfect task every time.
I'm trying to find the name of the guy (Gerald Weinberg!) who said that every project you're working on, beyond just one project, consumes twenty percent of your time in task switching. So one project? One hundred percent on one. Two projects? Forty percent on each of two, twenty percent lost. Three projects? Twenty percent on each of three, forty percent lost. And so on. When you get to five projects, you're just spinning around getting very little done.
Yes, it's a rule of thumb. Yes, it doesn't always apply to everything. Yes, part of GTD's purpose is, IMO, to reduce that effect. BUT-- acting like it's true is likely to work better than acting like context switching will cost you nothing.
So I would suggest that you choose the project that you most want to make serious progress on today, or this week, or this month, and make that your top priority, EVEN WHEN the task of the moment, for that project, is so very low priority.
You could give yourself some setup time, maybe even a project, "Prep for widget project by putting other projects on autopilot." Create and work some tasks to minimize the cost of your narrowed focus--for the to-be-neglected projects, assure that impatient customer that you'll get with him next week, apologize to the other one that their deadline is moving a month, schedule the meetings with the people who are hard to get calendar time for, order that software, get HR started on that hire you need to do. And then, to the extent humanly possible, for the already determined interval, pretend that the project of the week/month is the only project. Fill your brain with that project. Focus.
That's my advice. When I was lead programmer for...seven(?) small database applications, that's what kept me alive.
Edited to add: And, yes, then I burned out--all those spinning plates left me with no resilience when other, more toxic issues came up. Now I work a different job. I'm better off. But it's better to avoid the burnout in the first place, so start looking at burnout causes, and start forcing yourself to change responses.
"I can't possibly delay/delegate/cancel..."
"Yes. Yes, I can. People. Might. Be. Angry. and all the same? Yes, I can."
Burnout is a wall that you hit at high speed with no headlights. I know the day I hit it. I know that I hit it in the afternoon, not the morning. Nothing dramatic happened--all that happened was that my brain said, "You know all that zero-reward stuff that I've been giving you motivation and creativity to do? That's not working for me any more. I'm done." And it was done, and every minute of productive work after that was a pitched battle.