The 'waking up, work & sleep' are indeed the means to an end-goal. However, I'm very skeptical that watching TV / doing other mindless activities is also part of this. It serves no value except distraction. I suppose a good conclusion from this thread is to replace this part of the routine with something better. Even if it's just walking through nature.
The issue is that for most people, their 9-5 is so tiring that they get home and immediately feel drained, not wanting to do anything. Replacing that with "working on a project" or whatever is largely impossible for most people because they will significantly lack energy.
It's much better to approach the problem from the other side. Find a way to fix the 9-5 so that you have more energy, then you can find ways to better utilise the downtime with more energy available.
For most people who have bought into the housing lie, this is impossible - they are on a 20-30 year leash (uhh...lease) or a mortgage and so are essentially permanently tied to their day job - the moment they lose it or reduce their hours, they are in deep financial trouble and lose everything. Even if they try to save money from that job, it's in such small quantities and amounts that it will take them years to get far enough ahead to actually do anything with that money. By that time, a big holiday (to rest from work) for a month or so sounds far more appealing anyway.
This is the cornerstone of why people are so financially irresponsible nowadays. Lots of boomers like to say things like "kids are just stupid with money", and to a degree they're right. But there's also the important factor of just how draining work is and how predatory companies are when they can promise to make you feel good NOW while you're exhausted and depressed after work. So we spend. I can see why people do it. It's the same way companies use data to find people at their lowest point of depression, so they can advertise various impulse items to them for easy sale.
I feel like the way to fix this as an individual depends on the person, and it can be VERY hard - I don't blame people at all for giving up and resigning themselves to the grind, not even bothering to save because the moment-to-moment gratification day-in-day-out after an exhausting work day can be enough to keep them sane. But breaking out is possible.
If you really want a change of pace, I would recommend finding a roommate to move in with. If you own a house, this means moving someone in to help you pay your mortgage. If not, find a roommate and rent a place together. I know the conventional wisdom is that roomates suck and having your own place is a sign of "responsibility" and "maturity" (not to mention you can have people over for sex), but the cost is astronomically higher.
By cutting your expenses down, you gain more wiggle room - you can now do 4 day weeks instead, for instance. As long as you remain diligent and vigilant, and don't waste the extra time you have, it can be quite easy to turn your life around for the better job wise. Having time to master a new skill to get a job more closely related to a field you want to work in, or (even better) to start your own business are all empowering goals that will make your actual work so much easier and more interesting. Then, you'll naturally have time to do more projects. As you get better at this, you'll be able to move into your own place again, and continue moving forward, but with a firmer footing.
I feel like the biggest mistake people make is that they are afraid to move backwards. Once they have "completed" a phase in their life, they are usually afraid to return. For instance, if someone moves out of home, they will be very reluctant to move back in. When they leave a housemate and get their own place, then they are reluctant to move in with someone again, etc. But the endless move forward is often fraught with missteps or, what I generally see, people take steps too early, and then they are constantly fighting against a current they are only just strong enough to keep up with, leaving them exhausted and resulting in little progress. That's when they realise they have been in the same dead-end job for 15 years, have no spouse or partner, and are miserable. Moving back to a previous step is okay.
Of course, for people in relationships, they both have less and more options. If you're living with a partner, you can't simply move in with someone. Couples also tend to fall into a different issue. When living together, a couple should be able to save a fortune, and so what often happens is that they both work slightly less or spend slightly more to encompass the new income. Usually one person works significantly less than the other (for eg working part time) because there's less overall need for income since they have pooled their income together. I know several couples where one person works a full time job, and the other works part time, with the full-timer having more say over the income. While they say this "works for them", it tends to be miserable for everyone involved, as the part-time work is usually menial boring work that doesn't count as enough of a "real job" to be full time (which isn't to denigrate it), and so is not likely to be fulfilling, and the person working full time sees no real benefit to their life with a partner financially - they are still working just as hard and are as unfulfilled since they are exhausted all the time. Even with a spouse to come home to, they are often too exhausted to actually enjoy themselves. A MUCH better approach for couples is for them to pitch in to each others development. If one of them wants to do a university degree part time in order to change careers to something more fulfilling, the other should be willing to take on more work to accommodate that - leaving them free to put the adequate time into the degree (NEVER do part time uni and full time work at the same time, it's a huge mistake and you can't make it work, you will ALWAYS drop out eventually. It's too much work for one person). This will have the temporary effect of wearing down one partner even faster, but in the long term, will result in both partners being more fulfilled as they should be able to facilitate better lives through development of more skills and doing tasks they enjoy more. This should leave them free to explore projects together and generally have enough energy to actually live a fulfilling life.
Sorry, that became a bit of a word-salad there. I hope it all makes sense. This is something I constantly see people get wrong. Life is hard, and decision making about life is even harder. Most people make bad decisions, usually because they have been told again and again and again that those decisions are good. "You should get into a relationship as soon as possible, buy property with money you don't have ASAP, work any job and be grateful for it, and if you feel exhausted after work it's because you're just lazy and not trying hard enough". This idea cuases a death spiral as people feel it's their fault that they aren't succeeding, when the reality is, the game is rigged. Humans were not built for constant 8 hour workdays and transit to and from an office, and nobody is going to find fulfillment by playing the game using the accepted strategy - that's exactly the strategy they want you to use, and they have already set you up to fail.
The entire corporate world is a scam. Don't fall for the "good worker who goes home exhausted because life sucks" meme. Life sucks because you haven't made it good yet. They don't want you to make it good or you will leave your job, which is a hassle for them.
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