That's actually close to a regular working day. 4-5h of core work, 2h of correspondence (e. g. Zoom meetings, bullshit emails), 1h of various breaks, e. g. lunch. Sounds perfectly reasonable to me.
If one of the best speculative fiction authors to live only needs 5 hours of work a day to create The Left Hand of Darkness and the Earthsea series, then maybe it's something worth exploring.
Most of us work 8 hours a day and probably produce nothing "valuable" except shareholder profits so...
For most of those 8 hours, we are not productive to begin with and just procrastinate over small tasks, because it's not humanly possible to be hyperfocused for 8 hours straight.
Someone told me recently, that no good thoughts happen after 8 pm. I took note of this and it is surprisingly accurate. After 8:00 I find myself very edgy, and prone to negative thinking/anxiety.
I'm in a very similar boat. Luckily, I have a great boss who understands that I'm most productive starting around 13:00, and I work a schedule that reflects that
The Ones Who Left for Walk Away From Omelas. A 19-20 page short story about what a "utopia" truly is. (Yes, yes, "we live in an society")
Her non-fiction essays on writing, and reflecting on her body of work are also very good. She was an incredibly forward thinking writer, and one of my favourite authors of all time.
Personally, I wouldn't start with Wizard of Earthsea, that book was published in 1968 and definitely has the prose and flow modern readers are not as used to, especially for the fantasy genre.
I read Left Hand of Darkness for school, but it was The Dispossessed plus her non-fiction essays that got me into her. Omelas is also a good short story starting point, and I think it's only 20 pages.
I think the idea is: OP wakes up, spends an hour in traffic, sits at a desk for 8 hours, spends another hour in traffic, and then sits in front of the TV until they pass out. And they're amazed that not everyone lives that way.
She had the most interesting childhood too. The “K” in her name stands for Kroeber, after her father, a famous anthropologist who is known for letting Ishi, the last living member of his tribe, live in their backyard. It really helps her work and perspective make sense when you know she is a dyed in the wool anthropologist.
This isn’t just a meme! Lots of writers do this. If you find yourself in the position of trying this lifestyle I recommend giving it a go! It just sounds amazing to me. I tried it quite a bit during university and it was incredible for studying and focusing deeply when the world is quiet and nobody else is around.