starfruit, you shouldn't be working every minute of the day every day on the PhD just so you can look forward to getting a life, as you put it. Life has to carry on right through your PhD, or you'll be miserable! Trust me, I was there a couple of months ago, and my health was really starting to suffer. I went to a workshop on PhD life and what came out of it was that those who were getting a balance in their lives were having greater output on their projects than those who were completely obsessed by it. If you become obsessed, you tend to experience prolonged periods of inactivity from burn out, which means that you will probably end up having to take considerable time out anyway to get back on track.