Book Review
Solo: How to Work Alone (and not lose your mind) by author Rebecca Seal is the self-help guide that solopreneurs, freelancers and all those business owners who are now working from home, have been waiting for. It is a practical source of information and advice for all those who need to be happy and productive working from home, whilst at the same time addressing the emotional and mental challenges that working alone can bring.
Whether by choice or circumstance, as a solopreneur, a freelancer, or a business owner who is now working from home, more of us are becoming solo workers than ever before. But once you've made the leap, how to do you actually work well in isolation? And how can you thrive while working alone? In Solo: How to Work Alone (and not lose your mind), author Rebecca Seal provides a science and evidence based exploration of what working alone at home does to your brain and well-being. She provides practical advice on how to cope with the more difficult aspects of solo work. Rebecca was inspired to produce this book six years ago when she experienced a difficult period in her own freelance life, but didn’t actually start the writing process until 2019. Initially she thought the book would be for freelancers and self employed people… and then 2020 happened, the world of work changed, and it is now more relevant than she could ever have imagined.
Picking up where the freelancer bibles stop, Solo: How to Work Alone addresses what we gain but also miss when we shift from the structure of an office environment to the solitary confines of our homes or studios. Blending the latest research in psychology, economics and social science with guided self-examination and more than ten years of freelance experience, Rebecca Seal shows you how to stay resilient, productive and focused in a company of one. Practical and inspiring, she also explores the idea of meaningful work and helps you define your own success.
Author quotes
Working for yourself is wonderful. Going solo is one of the best decisions I ever made. Working for yourself gives you the opportunity to do whatever you have always dreamed of doing, and the chance to choose how, when and where you work.
Every solo worker needs to design their own situation, and then constantly adapt and tweak it.
The soloists who really thrive are the ones who are most open to change, who can be most agile when it comes to how or where or when they work, or at least who they are and what they need to change.
Soloists have more chances to make changes and build the kind of lives they really want and can enjoy.
About the author
Rebecca is a journalist, editor, TV presenter and author based in London. She specialises in food, drink, travel, lifestyle and human interest stories and has written or co-authored eight cookbooks, many with the LEON restaurant group, including her latest, LEON Happy Fast Food, which came out in May 2020. Her journalism has been published in the Financial Times, Evening Standard, Guardian, Sunday Times, Times, Sunday Telegraph, Observer, Olive, Glamour, Red, Grazia and Psychologies in the UK, as well as the Globe and Mail and The Australian. She regularly appears on Sunday Brunch, a weekly TV show on Channel 4, as well as on radio programmes across the UK. She is based in London, where she also runs a food and drink photography studio, Kemble House Studio.
Why LoA loves it….
2020 will be defined as the year more people were forced to work from home than probably at any other time due to the COVID-19 pandemic. For many women entrepreneurs, having to run their businesses from home became a reality - some found it a challenge, others found it quite liberating. More women took the decision to become solopreneurs during this period, experiencing the work-from-home environment for the first time. Rebecca’s new book is a much needed resource for any woman entrepreneur who is keen to know how to make this transition into working from both efficient and happy. This is a really practical and insightful read, and the timing of its publication couldn’t have come at a better time. For solopreneurs particularly, this will be a valuable resource to be used to create a work environment and lifestyle that really does work. — Melanie Hawken, founder & ceo of Lionesses of Africa