Vacation is a Demo Mode of a Real Life
Being on a vacation is nice. Until you hear your enterpeneur friends, who claim they won't move withou a laptop or work phone with them. And this might sound bad. In reality? They simply know there is always some spare time or idea that can be used to get further.
And there is one subtle thing. Those enterpreneur friends are deciding what to do every day. They make their own decisions. For other working full-time aka 9 to 5 - this is the only time when your time belongs to yourself. And if we want real AI transformation - we must re-validate .
8 hour workday myth
The 8-hour long working day was invented over a century ago. It is not something our ancestors were doing naturally. Because when you're close to the nature in high season - you can't work 8 hours straight. Fatigue, weather conditions and circumstances makes it either impossible or useless. Right things must be done at the right spots. Some goes early in the morning, others - later at night.
But sitting in a closed, ventilated or conditions space disconnects us from the nature. We invented artificial rhythms that supports machine and process. It was never meant to support people.
On the other side - many organisations learned "flexible day" sells well. The problem is - it was not meant to support people. It is meant to squeeze you out at any time of the day. A simple time tracker proves it easily, as most of people lack discipline and are happy to provide more hours feeling more flexible or even free.
I've done all of these, and questioned myself for the first time around 7 years ago. I learned that without external schedule, without assigned tasks - I am floating in a total vacuum. Pointless vacuum, I must say. No pleasure, no achievements, no movement. Something happens. I was extremely reactive. What I did? Started to work more.
Working More and Less
I was wrong, but it took me years to understand how exactlly. I was fighting for a better tomorrow. I was fueled with anger and frustration mostly. And I was battling each problem and challenge, hoping there is tomorrow, where there are no problems. It never happened. I struggled to surviving another day. Luckily COVID came, markets were erupted and it triggered a chain of decisions for me.
After catching a breath for a while I thought it can simply go and do 9 to 5. Working for 8 hours, take my paycheck and go home. Turned out I could not. It was borring. Most of the work was pointless. Following procedures, having pointless discussions. I felt like I'm a part of the cult, with some magic movements and ceremonies. That was the way I figured out it is not my path. I can't calmly observe problem exists and is about to explode for the entire team, and still do nothing about it. I am still wondering why most of leaders do this. And I'm finding more and more answers to this question. I don't like any of those, because each and every involves fear, ego, stupidness.
Own life starts with own schedule
Finally I started experiment. With simple things first. Workout session, walking session. Time for reading and playing video games. I gave up on latters pretty soon. These became boring, once I had more time and energy to live the life. Take care of real problems I am experiencing around me. Take care of the flat I'm living in or other belongings. Spend time on interesting topic. Think quietly and execute psychological knowledge I've gained to improve my life. These might look small, but one of the most impactful change I've made.
It looked like I was rebuilding my life from scratch, finally making my own decisions and trade offs. This year (2026) showed me that I still tend to trade my own goals for more predictable rewards building someone's else life. Giving up on my own schedule and tempo turned out to be the best indicator. Realizing this was a mix of shame and grieve. This was unexpected discovery. And the trick is most of people never reach this point. It is not pleasant, yet I learned to treat these moments as a part of the journey. You can't get into the sea without going through the sandy or rocky beach.
Putting it all together
8-hour workday is misaligned with nature and humans. The problem is without it most of us lack any discipline and simply misunderstanding how to do it differently. Therefore apart of other challenges related with quitting "normal job" it requires to address day to day routine. And modern life makes it worst. With enough money we can stay home, eat high-calory food and sleep, getting endless dopamine hits literally not leaving our bedrooms. We invented technologies and methods of abusing our surviving and development mechanisms. The only way out is consciousness.
The only way to conscious decisions and conscious life as a result it getting honest with yourself. Path to honesty goes through the fear, shame, boredome, loneliness. With the long term goals in mind we can start making better decisions that disconnects us and pulls away everything we had. And we are challenged to find a replacement. And nobody is there to help or suggest. The only help is provided by those, who went further down this path and share their journey. It fuels with some ideas, encourages and keeps on the float.
At some point magic happens. Energy level raises, calendar is getting full of different tasks and the day can be 12, 14, 16 hours long. Without draining, without exhaustion for quite a long period. Switching brain activity and physical activity is the key to success. Following the energy and interest is the core of it.
The challenge is to ensure physical survival in the long term. When jumping back to 8-hour slope doesn't work and any amount of existing resources are exhaustable - there is not much left. Keep going the path, look for opportunities and get confident enough to ask being paid. All those old friends of fear, shame and loneliness are coming to re-visit here. The good thing is on this step we know them much better than before.
