I think we have to look pre-industrialization to see fundamentally different ways of organizing production and work. The digital age has certainly sped things up, but the 20th century was full of bullshit too.
And before industrialisation the tendency was for everyone to inefficiently cultivate their own food whilst most semi-skilled tasks were carried out by small numbers of artisans typically organised around protectionist guilds, whilst the largest employers (preferring unpaid labour where possible) were religious orders and landowners conspicuously consuming and fighting their neighbours. I'm not convinced this arrangement involved less bullshit, but it certainly entailed less production.