Asynchronous Communication

Working from Europe with teammates in the Pacific time zone can be painful.

But it doesn’t have to be.

As a parent in Denmark I tried to avoid meetings between 4-8pm.

I have a 2.5 and 5 year old who need to be picked up around 4:00. Each week we have after school activities like swimming, gymnastics, and playdates. We also need to feed and bathe them before the bedtime routine.

Often, my husband and I scrambled to tuck-in the kids before 8pm so we could get on work calls. We chose to work after 8pm to maximize time spent as a family.

But, inevitably, we’d also have to Tetris our schedules for “urgent” and necessary Zoom calls in this 4-8pm family window.

For every meeting during family time I asked myself: 
🔹 How important is this meeting for me to attend? 
🔹 Is there an agenda or stated outcomes? 
🔹 Can I contribute beforehand and/or get an update after? 
🔹 Can I send someone in my place? 
🔹 Is this meeting worth sacrificing time with my family?

This was not a sustainable way to work or live.

I began building the skills of running and managing distributed teams and meetings out of sheer necessity.

I created and presented on "Asynchronous Best Practices" to the legal team. Then other teams asked me to present to their teams.

I was frequently asked: how do I get started?

In the beginning, the resources below helped me (links in the comments).

➡️ What other resources or best practice tips would you add? I'd love to hear your thoughts!

⌨️ Async Communication for Beginners:

- Doist: Asynchronous Communication: The Real Reason Remote Workers Are More Productive and How Doist Makes Remote Work Happen

- Basecamp: The Basecamp Guide to Internal Communication

- Oyster Academy : Learn skills as a remote work or building a distributed team.

- GitLab: Embracing Asynchronous Communication

- The Remote Show podcast from Tyler Sellhorn.

- Harvard Business Review: Remote Work Doesn’t Have to Mean All-Day Video Calls

Link to Original LinkedIn Post