The world is a changin’ and working across time zones is becoming more and more common for different industries. Whether you’re putting together a remote team, working with a digital nomad, or have officers across the world, I hope these tips and my hard-learned lessons help you out. Determine which meetings are work-related and mandatory and which are more cultural or social. That enables colleagues across different time zones to deal with their schedules, knowing they won’t be wasting time on a casual talk that could have been used working productively or catching up some sleep.

The COVID-19 pandemic has been — and continues to be — awful in many ways. One small silver lining, though, has been the newfound freedom that freshly remote workers have discovered as a result. Your availability can be emailed to meeting attendees once you’ve made your preferences.

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Cloud-based technology allowed a number of industries to adopt some form of remote work model. Naturally, organizations jumped at the opportunity to select from a global pool of talent which is, essentially, the key factor that led to the formation of teams that span across different time zones. Still, as much as it might be pretty seamless for a tech company to adjust their operations to working across time zones, for some industries and teams, this practice is simply not viable. Let’s get a more detailed look at what types of teams are leading the way in working across time zones.

• If you are receiving information, always assume the person has good intent.
• Async communication allows people to process the information on their own time and respond at their own convenience, reducing the number of interruptions people receive.
• Diverse teams made up of remote team members from around the world, especially in management positions, escape local echo chambers and build truly world-class products.
• With a workforce spread across time zones, you’ll also have to start thinking about investing in asynchronous technology.
• Just imagine a chatroom with all the features of texting and emailing available today and you’ll have Slack.

Best practices for managing teams across more than one time zone, such as communicating and establishing boundaries. If there are different time zones represented within the discussion, try to be as precise as possible regarding times and dates. When referring to a specific time, everyone reading your message needs to be aware of it. Rather than working the same number of hours consecutively, split your shift into two. Async communication, on the other hand, refers to sending information at different times and delaying the delivery.

Project Management Apps

Be aware and sensitive to the fact that you might be starting your day when someone else is ending theirs. As a freelancer and part-time digital nomad, this happens to me year-round, even when I may be in the same time zone as a client. Little did I know at the time, I booked every appointment for eastern time (Florida) when I live in the central time zone (Texas). What would normally cause late nights and a lot of unwanted stress, worked beautifully because I was overseas and eight hours ahead of the rest of the team.

Working across time zones brings unique challenges rarely encountered within the more traditional work models. As the rewards largely outweigh the drawbacks, it’s worth exploring the best team practices provided above to make working across time zones work. They will help you craft your perfect blend of flexibility, asynchronous work, and inclusive mindset to push your distributed team towards perpetual success. Of course, if you can’t afford to fly your working remotely in a different time zone entire team to a location very often, you can turn to virtual team-building events to keep up the team spirit in the meantime. You can invite your team members to join a private group or a public channel in the team chat app you use — for example, you can name the channel #group-activities, #team_fun_times, or simply, #team-building. There, you can suggest interesting team activities and play fun team-building games designed for virtual team settings.

Seek feedback and support

You should also identify the skills, knowledge, and tools that you need to develop or enhance. You should also seek learning opportunities, such as training, courses, webinars, podcasts, or books, that can help you improve your skills and knowledge. You should also celebrate your successes, and recognize the value and impact of your work. When working across time zones, it’s likely that you’ll be on meetings at strange times of the day. I’ve found that I’m not always at my best during weird hours and so my notes become all the more important.

• You should be prepared to adjust your plans, priorities, and deadlines according to the feedback, requests, and issues of your contacts.
• Microsoft Office is one of the most popular software programs utilized by offices and companies around the world.
• When you’re working in a distributed fashion, learning to be an effective async communicator is going to be the biggest factor in your success.
• You can get a quick snapshot around the world and can see the full world clock.
• Traditionally companies have relegated themselves to hiring people who live within commuting distance of their offices or at most, the same time zone.
• Attempts to reinvent time zones to make them easier for everyone have failed, we just can’t come to a universal agreement.