>When you do manual work outdoors, there is a sort of physical element that allows you to get "in the zone" and it really feels like true work.

The mind and the body are meant to be worked together.

I think that jobs like programming which minimize physical movement and maximize mental work are unnatural.

I've worked as a programmer, but before that I worked farm labour.

My meals and my sleep have never been as good as those days when I did a full day on the farm, feeding animals, milking cows and taking in the hay.