My Non-existent Work/Life Balance

Lately I've been struggling with my work/life balance. I've been engrossed in some very big projects at work and as a result I've been unable to actually fit in the time for my writing. I've been getting home any time between 7-9pm and just too exhausted to spend another 3 hours working on my novel. Which i know is defeatist claptrap, but it's where I've been lately. Its also why my blog posting has been sporadic and slightly shorter than usual.

With the poor economy, more lay offs and in general more work to go around its hard to treat my job as a 9.30-5.30 affair. When I was fresh out of college I really believed that work ended at X time. Especially as I didn't get paid overtime. Now, i still don't get paid overtime, but more and more frequently I'm at the office later and later. Plus, professionally I've been given a lot of projects that are testing my merit and work as an assistant and clearly designed to push me forward. So, I've found it incredibly difficult to just turn my machine off and leave work unfinished.

Normally, I'm very good at reminding myself I have two jobs, one that pays the bills the other that fulfills my days. Although, with my day job now being something that I've grown to love, its weird to find I have a passion for both professions. So, my question to all you writers out there is how do you find that balance between work and writing? I used to be able to answer this question with a simple work ends at 5.30 and writing is from 8-10 (or so). But now, I can't.

So, when all of you out there get very busy how do you juggle all your work and writing commitments? So far I've been reassessing my writing goals and making them smaller (hey, it's better to get a little bit done than nothing, right?) and trying to force myself to have at least two nights a week out the door no later than 6pm. Its been working, but its a slow process. Now, if only I could reclaim my lunch hour...

So, the floor is open for suggestions. Just how do you strike that tricksy balance?