Asynchronous work increases efficiency and boosts productivity
Working asynchronously is highly efficient because everyone on the team can always default to action.
There are many times when work isn’t to be tackled, tasks aren’t planned, decision makers aren’t online, etc. In these times, successful teams execute, even if they later have to refactor and adapt, they don’t waste time “waiting”.
A tremendous amount of stress comes with expectations to be online, available, and responsive during set working hours. Worse, our hyper-connected society has allowed this notion to seep into every hour of the day, destroying boundaries between work and self.
An unsung benefit to working asynchronously is a reduction of tension. When your entire company operates with an understanding that any team member could be offline at any time, for any reason, there is no expectation that one will reply instantly to an inquiry.
This creates an environment where your mental health is prioritized, allowing team members to set boundaries and freeing them from a perpetual assault of notifications and judgment.
Fundamentally, asynchronous communication is simple. We do it all the time, when we send messages, leave voice messages, and record videos. Communicating async just means that the recipient of the message and the sender are unlikely to be in the same space at the same time.
However, doing async communication well requires significant intentionality. When creating an async message, you have to consider questions like:
This level of thoughtfulness often produces communications that are clear, complete, delivered with kindness, and that create productive results.
This also means that communicating asynchronously takes more time and planning, and requires specific tools. When it comes to async communication, there is as much to unlearn as there is to learn.
The easiest way to take on an asynchronous mindset is to ask this question: “How would I deliver this message, present this work, or move this project forward right now if no one else on my team (or in my company) were awake?” This removes the temptation to take shortcuts, or to call a meeting to simply gather input.
Remote workers lack many of the physical gateways that serve as dividers between work and life. When work and life happen in the same building, and one’s work equipment is always within reach, it’s far too easy to allow unread Slack messages to haunt you. Being intentional about removing Slack from one’s phone is a great way to reinforce that time away from work is important.
A litany of studies have covered the addictive impact of smartphones. Even if you aren’t sure if this approach will benefit you, give it a try. It’s a two-way door.
In a colocated setting, a worker can pick up context clues by seeing someone storm away, sigh loudly, or intentionally put on a pair of noise-cancelling headphones to prevent interruptions. In a remote setting, it’s not as simple to let people know you need uninterrupted focus.
Thus, it’s important to leverage Slack statuses to broadcast information on your capacity to your team.
You should feel safe to manually adjust your status to indicate when you are at capacity or engaged in focus time. This reinforces that others can and should consider doing likewise, while also reminding others that synchronous conversation should not be the default.