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

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