SOLO – How To Work Alone (And Not Lose Your Mind), reviewed

We look at Rebecca Seal’s timely book, which was actually conceived before the global pandemic kicked in. You can see more about her book here.

SOLO – How To Work Alone (And Not Lose Your Mind), reviewed

This book is a fun read, honest, relatable, and very much one from the heart. Already many people are realising the covid-19 pandemic was, in many ways, a behavioural nudge towards ways of working that many people had already been embracing. Seal takes us on a thought provoking journey of conversations with other, inspiring people, who have taken the plunge and worked for themselves, with all of the challenges that it brings.

As she explains, this book was conceived before covid, but then, as the whole world was told to work from home, this ensured a lot of myth busting took place. Freelance working, going solo, is not always easy, can be lonely, and still leaves you with many challenges, but more and more people are embracing it. Seal describes mistakes she made along the way, and words of wisdom from other solo-ers too.

Levison Wood, whose travel books we love, is one of the people she talks with, and it does help to see that there is no one right path, but there are a lot of smart things you can do to help yourself on this journey. And, whether you like it or not, you may end up having to take on this type of work either way, so why not benefit from Seal’s insights and experiences.

Most of our team have been happily working in a distributed way for a number of years now, so we enjoyed this book more from an affirmation point of view, however we would also definitely recommend it to other people wondering whether to return to the office or not (hint, don’t do it). A fun, accessible, enjoyable book.

It’s here! First copy of my new book! I started SOLO in 2019 and finished it in lockdown. I never thought that when it arrived, vast numbers of people would have been forced into solo work. I wish it wasn’t needed, but I hope it helps a little bit. https://t.co/sWqRTM7B76 pic.twitter.com/6RBgXoGSju

— Rebecca Seal (@RebeccaSeal) September 11, 2020

More about the book, by the author ->

Solo – a book for anyone who works by themselves

I started thinking about ‘SOLO – How To Work Alone (And Not Lose Your Mind)’ six years ago, and I started writing it in mid 2019, way before the craziness of 2020 was unleashed on us all. I had no idea how (horribly) prescient the book would turn out to be, nor how many people might need it. I just wanted to answer some of the questions that I had struggled with during my decade of freelancing, a time during which I had had some of my lowest lows, as well as highest highs.

If I was finding it hard, surely others were too? So began my quest to understand what solitary work does to our brains, how to cope in a company-of-one, how modern office environments mangle our productivity, how important other people are (especially when we are alone), why money confuses us (and sometimes robs us of our happiness), how to work out what success is, and what on earth meaningful work might be.

To do this I interviewed organisational psychologists, academics, and behavioural scientists, read hundreds of journal articles and talked with many solo workers, from professional violinists to TED talkers to designers to explorers, to find out how their work does and doesn’t work for them, and what they’ve done about it.

Whether you work alone and for yourself, or remotely for a larger organisation, SOLO was written for you. I want soloists to thrive, rather than being overtaken by their work. I want us to live full lives outside our work, while making the most of our working lives too. With a few changes, some small, some bigger, achieving this is possible for all soloists.

We may be SOLO but we are in this together. Rebecca

More about the author ->

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