Need advice on how not to have my game be a grind!

I'll make an effort toward mods to make it playable. Just sux that it's so onerous to do anything but work, eat, sleep, shower, repeat until you die, in this game, if you start out single. Life just isn't worth living unless you find a way to cheat the system, so it's depressing how accurately it models real life in the 21st century.