Read 23 books in 2018. Down a bit from prior years, as podcasts are getting better and better (and taking up more and more of my commute time). Top 8 asterisked, with the rest in descending order.

Any must-reads I missed?

*Option B: Facing Adversity, Building Resilience and Finding Joy - Sheryl Sandberg *Like Brothers - Jay Duplass, Mark Duplass *Sick in the Head: Conversations About Life & Comedy - Judd Apatow *The Power of Moments - Chip and Dan Heath *12 Rules for Life - Jordan Peterson *The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement - Eliyahu Goldratt *Why Not Me - Mindy Kaling *Lost and Founder - Rand Fishkin

Dare to Lead - Brene Brown The Power of Now - Eckhart Tolle Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few - Robert Reich The Modern Political Tradition: Hobbes to Habermas

The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing - Al Ries, Jack Trout When to Jump - Mike Lewis The Bedwetter: Stories of Courage, Redemption and Pee - Sarah Silverman Not That Kind of Girl - Lena Dunham Killing Marketing - Robert Rose and Joe Pulizzi Recovery: Freedom From Our Addictions - Russell Brand The Coming Storm - Michael Lewis The Rational Optimist - Matt Ridley Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make the Competition Irrelevant - Renee Mauborgne, W. Chan Kim Unqualified - Anna Faris

Many people have finally taken that plunge to either work for themselves and freelance or start their own businesses, and traditionally these begin from home. Working from home for some can often be seen as the dream, but actually it is a lot harder than you might think. There are, however, tips and hacks you can implement into your day to make things work easier, and to allow you to strike that work and home life balance right. With that in mind, here are some suggestions.

Working from home means that you have everything in the one place, but that can often mean that your home gets untidy because of work related papers, etc. So out may be time to go paperless. You could start with a cheap virtual mailing address service that will actually make all your mail virtual and sent direct to your email. Making less paper. It can also look professional at meeting to have a paperless system. Being able to showcase results, figures, etc on your tablet or to be sent to potential clients via email.

Time management is extremely important when you work from home, so it may be time to start thinking about how you can make some changes to the way you work. This will help stop the blur of working and living at home. It could be that you give yourself set working hours, and focus on areas to make some big changes. It could be that you look at blocking time to do certain tasks, so that you can bulk do tasks at different points of the day. There are some great time management hacks online and many of them are very useful for working from home.

Working from home means that you are surrounded by distraction, so having a dedicated place to work can help you get into work mode more easily than it would be to sit in bed or in your living room. Of course, these are big benefits of working from home, being able to work from anywhere, but having one space for work can help you to stay on track. Plus it can also work in the opposite way, enabling you to walk away from your job and then focus on home life without feeling constantly on the clock.

Finally, working from home means that you have the local vicinity to work with. Not only does it help to work locally and outside of the home, for a change of scenery, but dependent on what your work is, you could also canvass for business in the local community. You are there to provide a service or to sell products, so doing this locally can help you to tap into a customer base with very little competition out there. Working outside of the home can also give you that time to network and be in the company of others, as working from home can get lonely at times.

Let’s hope these tips help you to make working from home easier.