Top 7 Skills Needed to Successfully Work-at-Home

To many, working at home is a dream come true, with flexible schedules, financial freedom, a short commute to your home office, and the ability to do something you love.

But even though working from home has many positive attributes, it does require a particular type of personality and skillset to make it as a successful work-at-home employee or entrepreneur.

Do you have what it takes to be a successful work-at-home woman?

Read on to find out the top seven skills that are best suited for working at home.

1. Critical Thinking

To make it as a home-based worker, you need to be able to work independently with very few directions. As a home-based employee, you won’t have the luxury of co-workers sitting next to you, so many times, to may need to figure out issues for yourself. If you’re the type of person who prefers more guidance, working at home may not be an ideal situation for you.

2. Excellent Communication Skills

Because you’ll be doing your work or business remotely, you’ll need to have excellent communication skills, because often you won’t have the visual and verbal cues that help guide a conversation. Although smartphone apps and programs like Skype make it easy for people to stay in touch, the majority of your communication will be done via email. So you will need to make sure that you can covey what you mean clearly and concisely.

3. Self-Motivated

One of the advantages of working at home is the ability to create your ideal schedule. But if you’re not motivated, you may find yourself sleeping in too many days in a row and not getting your work done. Working from home requires that you’re able to work independently, and because you won’t have a boss looking over your shoulder, you need to make sure that you can stay on task.

Related content: How to Stay Disciplined When Working From Home

4. Able to Avoid Distractions

Household chores, pets, TV, and family members are just a few of the distractions you’ll encounter when you start working at home. Planning ahead will be key – having readily available snacks for consumption, planning children’s activities or having childcare arranged, and having a separate office space can all help minimize distractions, but ultimately, it is up to you to stay focused.

5. Comfortable with Social Isolation

Even though you can work at your local coffee shop, or you can hop on Twitter and socialize, the majority of your time is going to be spent all by yourself. If you’re a social butterfly that requires a lot of social stimulation, working at home may cause you to go stir crazy, or it may even make you feel socially depressed.

6. Organized and Balanced

Maintaining balance is one of the most challenging aspects of working at home because the work is always right there staring you in the face. To keep you on track (and not working too much or too little), organization will be essential. To help keep you on track, you will need to get very organized, everything from filing systems and daily to-do lists, to keeping track of finances and emails.

7. Computer Savvy

Since the majority of your work will be done on your computer, you will need to be computer savvy. You will need to know everything from learning how to use different software, to updating programs and keeping your computer running smoothly. A broken-down computer or internet connection equals no work getting done, so you will need to be able to navigate your way through tech issues and concerns.

Conclusion

By knowing your personality and skillsets, you’ll be able to determine if working at home is the right path for you. While some of these skills can be learned, others are more difficult to overcome. Take a personal inventory and be honest if you have the right mindset and skills to work from home.

What other skills and personality traits are needed to successfully work-at-home?