The problem about those claims of how much time people in some era worked is the modern definition of work. Back then there was virtually no distinction between working hours and off time or leisure. Only since the industrial revolution have people been expected to show up to some place at an exact time and have their working hours monitored. It even took conditioning generations of schoolchildren for this to be accepted as normal. This applies both to the hunter-gatherers who are claimed to have worked only like 15 hours a week hunting and gathering, and medieval farmers who only worked in the fields a few weeks out of the year.
What's neglected is all the tedious work that needed done, like grinding grain (where "the daily grind" comes from), sewing, washing clothes, sharpening tools, milking cows, etc. That's what took up most of people's time back then. However it was easy almost passive work, more akin to chores, in fact much of it is what people do for fun these days. And still there was much time leftover for festivities or works of passion like building cathedrals. Whereas today, even when people have so much leisure time, they hardly ever spend it doing fulfilling things, let alone while working.
