Is this true? That the workplace is where we spend most of our time? I think not....

When I heard Ken Wilber say, that the workplace is where we spend most of our time - I just couldn't help it: I had to put in this observation of mine that rather surprised me, when I made it: The fraction of our lives that we actually work is often wildly overestimated, provided we define work as activities we do to earn our living.

How much of our time is occupied by work and how much is not? Assume we live to be more than 70 - maybe 90  Childhood, youth and old age alone take out between half and two thirds of our "working" lives.

In the remainder, we sleep in one third of the time, and out of the rest we maybe work a bit more than half. That is on working days. Not weekends and holidays. All in all... the time of our life we spend working varies a lot, but it is probably less than 20 % - maybe approaching 10%. We may be sick now and then and some are disabled. It is definitely not true, that we spend most of our lives working. 

How can the idea have become so strong, that life is mostly work? 

I guess it is because we pretty much see the work and money as the overall purpose of  life. What is not related to money does not really count.

Changing our idea of life's purpose changes the significance of a lot of non-working time and a lot of not-working persons: Every moment of life can be an opportunity to practice love an wisdom - for the good of others and to mature in personal development. From this point of view, childhood, youth and old age - and rest, holidays and even sleep all get a content and meaning that is not inferior to the time we work. And when we start counting them in for real - work is only a small part of our lives.