Freelancing is rad. I’ve gone into some depth on why I think that’s the case and even provided some thoughts and resources for my rush hour and necktie-averse kin.

Freelancing is also challenging, in many ways more so than office work. I’ve transitioned between the two, both ways, and while I’ve landed on the liberating, self-motivated (but insecure, complicated and confusing) freelance side rather than the dull, workaday cube farm side (with it benefits, job security and human interaction) I can obviously see arguments for both.

Here’s what I wish I’d known before I set out to navigate the minefield between corporate and freelance work. With any luck, it should help you do the same without hearing a click and having to offer a sad and final “oops.”

Have a plan.

This is where going corporate to freelance starts to differ from vice versa. Choosing a new corporate employer takes hard goals, but also flexibility: an ex-freelancer has to learn to accommodate other people’s plans, on account of, you know, working with other people now.

Entering the freelance world requires the opposite.

You don’t just need goals. You need a schedule.

You need deliverables, you need a budget, you need Plans B-Z inclusive for when you come in over or under, because you will.

In short, you need a boss in your head.

It is the best boss you’ll ever have: that cat (feel free to imagine it as an actual cat in a business suit; I certainly do) doesn’t care if you party til 2am on a Wednesday, or skive off for three hours in the middle of the day to catch “Fate of the Furious” at matinee prices. All your new boss cares about is hitting the numbers.

Have numbers. Hit them.

Go slowly.

This is the one that everyone screws up, by which I mean that I did. It is so tempting to stick your boss’ tie in the shredder, shot put your least favorite appliance out the window and burn a sweet donut in the parking lot before you drive off to your freelancer future. Every office drone’s dream, right?

Don’t do it. Do not.

On my last day before I went freelance, I wore a Metallica tee and sweats to my shirt-and-tie day job. Joked with my cube buddy, what were they gonna do, fire me?

Thing is? That was the first time I went freelance.

As you’ll recall from the intro, I’ve done that twice. Thankfully, when I did have to return to the realm of gridlock and beige, I was in a different time zone. But the whole reason I had to return to the corporate world in the first place was summed up in that I didn’t prepare. I did the dream, cut loose, and burned the bridges behind me. Unwise.

It’s standard wisdom that you should build up savings before starting a business. Real talk: for an awful lot of people, that’s fantasy. Even in my coziest corporate days, north of the 50th percentile, between rent and urban cost of living my only shot at meaningful savings was retailing organs.

Keep your kidneys. Instead, bank your time.

I’m a writer. You may have noticed. Most of my day jobs involved that skill. If you think every character I typed into Word in my cube days was corporate-approved, as opposed to projects or practice for my freelance adventures, there’s this great bridge I’d like to sell you.

So for the first few months, keep your day job and build your skills.

Take small projects on your own time, buoyed with that glorious cushion of salary.

Train your brains out. You may even be able to do that at work: plenty of employers, especially in fields like tech and medicine that a) value certification b) translate nicely to freelancing, will shell out to train you up. Wade into the shallow end while you’ve still got a roof and a health plan. It’s vital experience, but more importantly, it’s how you figure out freelance IT or consulting or Etsying artisanal dog sweaters is actually how you want to spend 80 hours a week.

Keep a schedule.

Wait. 80 hours? Fraid so, at least early on. It will take serious legwork to get those artisanal dog sweaters off the ground. No client list means permanent hustle. No infrastructure means weeks on end of pure trial and error, figuring out what works. No employees means every last bit of it is on you.

That’s not what I mean by scheduling. You have a job, and, being an American Genius reader, are by definition intelligent and insightful, not to mention good-looking and possessed of impeccable taste. We don’t let just anybody around here. You know you’ll need that stuff.

When you freelance, you need to schedule life.

That boss in your head? Still your boss, which is to say a sociopath who can and will take every minute you’re willing to offer. For better or worse, an office job does work-life balance for you: come in then, leave now, this is due whenever. The nastiest trap in entering freelance work, the last, biggest boom in the minefield, is that it can swallow you whole. If you let it, it will take over your life, and it’s better at that than the cube, because it’s something you want to do.

Integrate both ways.

So, not every day but now and again, put down your dog sweaters and catch Vin Diesel. See a concert on a weekday. Spend a whole evening playing with your kid.

Whatever you like, with a single rule: no work allowed.

Make sure your life is integrated into your job.

And that, my friend, is how you transition from drone life to freelance life.

It’s no surprise that successful entrepreneurs are lifelong learners, although most will tell you that their continued learning bears little resemblance to traditional education experiences. Instead of sitting in a classroom or lecture hall, a combination of various forms of perpetual learning, or learning through experience, can be the most meaningful.

Stacklist released a list of their best books of the year for 2016 for entrepreneurs, and in addition to being a great source of entertainment, literature can provide a way to continue learning and discovering new ideas.

Blake Mycoskie, founder of TOMS Shoes, has famously said that when he decided to move onto a 200-square foot sailboat, he kept only the necessities, which included books. “Books are different from other possessions—they’re more like friends,” he said.

Whether you’re a new entrepreneur looking for advice about how to start your first business, or a seasoned vet looking for new inspiration, these ten selections from Stacklist’s longer list will certainly get you thinking, learning, and moving forward.

1. The Art of Startup Fundraising by Alejandro Cremades

2. Payoff: The Hidden Logic that Shapes Our Motivations by Dan Ariely

3. Chaos Monkeys: Obscene Fortune and Random Failure in Silicon Valley by Antonio Garcia Martinez

4. Small Data: The Tiny Clues That Uncover Huge Trends by Martin Lindstrom

5. Ego is the Enemy by Ryan Holiday

6. Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World by Cal Newport

7. Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days by Jake Knapp, John Zeratsky, and Braden Kowitz

8. You Can’t be Everywhere: A Common Sense Approach to Digital Marketing For Any Business by Marie Wiese

9. Tools of Titans: The Tactics, Routines, and Habits of Billionaires, Icons, and World-Class Performers by Tim Ferriss

10. The Inevitable: Understanding the 12 Technological Forces that Will Shape Our Future by Kevin Kelly

If you’re skeptical of books for entrepreneurs because you think that can be an echo chamber of the same stories and names, or just cliché advice meant to stroke ones ego, know that these selections steer clear of all these things. Their selection process put quality first, so go ahead and grab a few of these titles for yourself or as a holiday gift for an entrepreneur in your life.

Bonus points for buying from an independent bookseller or from the author’s website directly.

Doing what you love and loving what you do is a recipe for a happy and successful life, but that doesn’t mean you won’t still be overwhelmed at times. If you’re doing what you love you’re still going to have days that leave you feeling overworked and overstressed. It’s time to delegate!

One of the best ways you can combat these feelings may sound difficult at first, but in the long run, your body and mind will thank you.

1. Clean your plate

What is this magic stress reliever? Relinquishing a tiny bit of control and delegating some of your tasks to someone else. Tim Ferris, author of The Four Hour Workweek said, “It is almost impossible to find anyone who has made millions of dollars who doesn’t delegate at least a handful of time-consuming things.”

Don’t work harder, work smarter. Chances are you’ve heard that phrase at least once before, okay, more than once. One of the best ways you can do this is to delegate less important tasks to someone else.

2. Outsource routine tasks

These tasks can range from something as simple as having someone organize your email, to something as complex as hiring someone else to manage all of your social media efforts so you are no longer duty-bound to check them every few moments.

Outsourcing relieves some of the stress in your daily routine and frees up more of your time you can spend doing what you love. If you still have doubt, by outsourcing even a few of your tasks, you’re also giving an up-and-comer a chance to see what you do and get their foot in the door. Not only are you helping yourself, but you’re also helping the next generation of entrepreneurs.

3. Build a team

Anything and everything that helps you stay focused on what matters most to you is worth any pains you may initially feel in letting go of a handful of your customary tasks.

Asking for help doesn’t make you look inept, it makes you look intelligent. So many times entrepreneurs do the job of an entire team because they feel like they are the only ones who have a vested interest in the business and can do the job efficiently. While this may be true, you could also be missing out on experts that can help grow your business while allowing you to focus on other aspects.

4. Focus on what matters

By outsourcing or delegating, especially in our digital world, you are saying, “I could do this, but I’m choosing to let someone else take the reins so that I can focus on what really matters to me and my business.” If this means getting a payroll expert, go for it. If it means hiring a research or writing assistant, fantastic; whatever you need to do to take a little bit of the stress off yourself and allow yourself time to re-focus on your business do it. You’ve earned it.