I heard that back in the days, people used to just go when their work was done on the farms and there was no concept of 9-5 (these days seem 24 hours work). There used to be a lot of holidays.
Is that true? If it is, then given the abundance in technology, why our work hours increased and why do we have such weird lives that we live to work?
Being self employed helps. My workday doesn't end at set time - it ends when I'm done. Sometimes that's 10am, sometimes 7pm. Then if I feel like I've worked too much and could use a vacation I just don't schedule any work for the rest of the week/next few weeks.
Now don't get me wrong, I do work a lot but it doesn't feel like work really because I have total control of everything I do and I'm doing exactly what I want to be doing. What also helps is that I manipulate the physical world - not bits on a computer. When I'm done I can see what I've built and on top of all that I get genuine gratitude for it. Lots of it actually - people are awesome.