For some reason I tend to forget about task management apps. So whenever I got back to them, it was depressing to see all the unfinished tasks that I haven't touched.

My solution is extreme time boxing. Every Sunday, I sit down and time box the next week. Work and personal stuff goes into the same calendar. I've learned to keep enough slack to not get stressed out. I also know how much unplanned time I need to coordinate with co-workers.

It's kind of absurd that less freedom when to do things, gives me more happiness.

In the beginning I thought that this cannot work because sometimes you just need uninterrupted time to finish something. However, such uninterrupted long spans don't exist anyways for many people. There are stand-ups at work, you have appointments with some of your team members and at 5pm you need to pick up your kids.