15+ Best Work-Life Balance Books Worth Reading
When you work remotely, finding a good work-life balance is incredibly important. As a remote worker, It’s very easy to continue working after normal hours when you are in the comfort of your home.
Additionally, you have more autonomy with your work (typically). This means you have more freedom to organize and figure out what tasks are most important.
Yet being productive and not overworking yourself can be challenging to control. So if you are looking to achieve more fulfilling work with your personal life, then these work-life balance books are worth reading.
Let's dive in!
Why Is Work-Life Balance Important?
Work-life balance is how your personal and professional life intersects with one another. And it’s how you ensure you do not neglect one specific area or burnout in general.
Having a good work-life balance is important for your health, your personal relationships, and your overall productivity in anything you do.
It’s why there are tons of work-life balance books out there. And even more articles about the subject in general. It matters a lot and it should to you as well.
Tip: On the job hunt and looking at a remote work position? Make sure during your interviews you consider asking some of these work-life balance questions.
Work-Life Balance Books for Remote Workers
Work-life balance can be a struggle for anyone, whether you are a remote worker, a digital nomad, or work in a physical office.
So whether you are a remote employee or not, you will find awesome guidance in these books. And all of these books can be found on Amazon, but I linked each directly for you already.
1. The 4-Hour Work Week
Tim Ferris
This book is all about how to live a better life and find work you’ll love. Tim Ferris lays out the framework to achieve your dreams of traveling, escaping the traditional 9-5, and optimizing your time with maximum results.
2. Thrive: The Third Metric to Redefining Success and Creating a Life of Well-Being, Wisdom, and Wonder
Arianna Huffington
Arianna Huffington is a name you might already be familiar with, being the founder of The Huffington Post. In this personal book, Arianna shares her challenges managing her time with work and her personal life as well as how to unplug and find a better work-life balance.
3. Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity
David Allen
Getting Things Done is a popular and influential business book that covers everything about the personal organization. This book provides the foundation for how you can approach professional and personal tasks more effectively to drive results.
4. Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World
Cal Newport
Deep Work is all about how this work ethic will produce huge results for you. And then he provides a training process and rules to improve your mind and habits.
5. How to Work Without Losing Your Mind
Cate Sevilla
A deep look at surviving the 9 to 5 work schedule. This emotional roller coaster will provide laughs and surprising insights. Plus, she will share how to navigate the positives and negatives of work.
6. Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle
Emily Nagoski, Amelia Nagoski
This book dives into why women have been experiencing mental burnout differently from men. And the authors share science-based approaches that will help women reduce stress and improve the quality of their personal and professional lives.
7. Joy at Work: Organizing Your Professional Life
Marie Kondo and Scott Sonenshein, Translated by Cathy Hirano
The workplace or your home office can easily become cluttered and disorganized with emails, meetings, and random tasks. Joy at Work is all about improving your professional life with key organizational tips.
8. The 80/20 Principle
Richard Koch
This book is about how 80% of our results in business and life can be attributed to just 20% of our efforts. Yup, you read that right! You’ll learn how to be more effective with way less effort.
9. The Organized Mind
Daniel Levitin
Backed by science and research, Daniel J. Levitin, Ph.D., uses the latest brain science to examine how people excel and how others can use those methods in their own professional and personal lives.
10. Rest: Why You Get More Done When You Work Less
Alex Soojung-Kim Pang
We all have heard others talk about how working more will generate better results. Well, business consultant and author Alex Soojung-Kim Pang actually shows that you can get more done by working less. Talk about being productive and having a work-life balance!
11. Do Nothing: How to Break Away From Overworking, Overdoing, and Underliving
Celeste Headlee
Award-winning journalist Celeste Headlee shares how to stop overworking and stressing, while being able to live a better life. It’s all about how to help put work aside and make your life the priority.
12. Million Dollar Dads: Highly Successful Entrepreneurs Share The Best Advice & Secrets for Mastering Work-Life Balance
Preston Anderson, Chris Baden, Eric Beer, James Golden, Cody Loughlin, Evans Putman, Akbar Sheikh
A bit different from some of the other work-life balance books on this list, but worth the read. These dads share their entrepreneurial ways and how you can build a successful business while also achieving the proper balance in work and in your personal life.
13. Out of Office: The Big Problem and Bigger Promise of Working from Home
Charlie Warzel and Anne Helen Petersen
This book covers different interviews and insights from managers and workers from all over the world. Together, the authors share their findings on flexibility in the workplace, fairness, work-life balance, and more.
14. Off Balance: Getting Beyond the Work-Life Balance Myth to Personal and Professional Satisfaction
Matthew Kelly
Everyone typically wants to achieve a work-life balance but the majority do not have it. In Matthew Kelly’s book, he believes that people don’t actually want balance at all. You’ll be introduced to his steps to be more satisfied in life.
15. The Work-Life Balance Myth: Rethinking Your Optimal Balance for Success
David J. McNeff
This book will be your guide on how to better frame your life and work, as well as manage the stress that will inevitably happen. It might make you think differently about the concept of work-life balance as a whole.
16. It Doesn’t Have to Be Crazy at Work
Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson
Both author names may be familiar to you, as not only are they the founders of Basecamp, but are also on our remote expert’s list. In this book, they show you how you don’t need to work long hours or be part of the “hustle culture” to run a successful business and have a happy personal life.
17. Work-from-Home Hacks: 500+ Easy Ways to Get Organized, Stay Productive, and Maintain a Work-Life Balance While Working from Home!
Aja Frost
If you work from home, then you want to maximize your productivity. This is where Aja Frost’s book will become your new playbook for hacking your work from home experience.
Start to Improve Your Work-Life Balance
The selection of work-life balance books above is some of my top choices if you are looking to dive into the topic further.
Each provides various examples, data, and expert advice to help you think differently about work and your personal life.
In my opinion, I see remote work as a great way to improve your career happiness, while having more time for yourself or your family. However, you still need to work on having that work-life balance as you still can slip in the wrong direction.
Since your work and home collide, it often can be difficult to set the right boundaries for yourself.
If you are looking for a career change, check out our remote job board for a new opportunity. Or dive into more content to help make the most of your career. Let’s go!
