151. The 12 Hour Working Week, A Manifesto for OTs Who Keep Getting Told to Do More
Here's a tighter version, Jan. Cut roughly in half, kept the strongest hooks: Beki Eakins works about 12 hours a week. And she still feels guilty about it. Not because the business is struggling. It's growing, her clients are getting results, and she's built the life she wanted. But she'll open her diary, see the gaps, and hear the voice saying you should be doing more. This episode started as therapy for herself. It turned into an argument. Because the standard advice for growing a business is always the same: double the output, double the hours. Beki has tried it, repeatedly, and every time she burnt out and achieved nothing extra. She traces where the work harder belief came from, a father treated as a superhero for working himself into the ground, and what shifted it, from Tim Ferriss to the world schooling families she met travelling, including one father supporting his family on four hours a week. Then the honest breakdown. Her 12 hours, line by line. Client support, group calls, sales, team, admin. And the weeks it all falls apart, like the fortnight with a hospital appointment, a graduation, seventy Vikings at the house and about five hours of work done. That happens at least once a month, and building it into the average instead of feeling shame was the real breakthrough. You will hear: The full breakdown of what 12 hours a week actually contains Why the business grew while she was in Australia working ten hours a week What Stanford research says about output past 50 hours a week Why she thinks full time should mean 20 hours and part time 12 The six months of doing nothing, and what it taught her If your business is quietly becoming a second job with worse pay and no annual leave, that's not commitment. It's a design flaw. And design flaws can be fixed. One note: this is not a prescription. There are seasons where pushing hard is right. The argument is against doing it permanently by default, without ever choosing it. Connect with Beki Are you ready to leave the whinger mindset behind and embrace your inner go-getter? Beki helps OTs worldwide design, launch, and scale their online business Free Resource: Download Beki’s free overnight mindset meditation for free to help you build confidence, overcome money mindset challenges, and develop self-belief. Join OT Yourself To Freedom Membership : Discover the only membership designed specifically for OTs to create freedom-based businesses by leveraging the skills you already have. Learn to design and sell offers, market effectively, and align your work with your purpose. Follow Beki: Website: www.bekieakins.com Instagram: OT Yourself to Freedom Facebook Group: OT Freedom Community LinkedIn: Beki Eakins Book an Inspiration Call: Click here About the Host Beki Eakins is a business mindset and lifestyle coach for occupational therapists. After leaving traditional OT practice, she has helped hundreds of OTs worldwide design aligned online businesses that support freedom, income, and purpose, without burning out.
