6 Tips to Ace Working Remotely in Different Time Zones

When you don’t need to consider time zones, you can attract and hire the best talent regardless of location. This is a massive benefit, even if you are located in a hub like San Francisco or New York, chances are the best person for the job doesn’t live within commuting distance of your office. Frankly there is no perfect solution and I’ve been looking for it for years and have not found it but there are lots of ways you can make it a lot easier. One suggestion is you could tell your clients you’re on eastern Time as opposed to Pacific that would make things three hours easier if you are Europe.

When all your engineering peers see of you is demands, you are not likely to be a cherished colleague they like to work with. It is also frustrating to them as https://remotemode.net/blog/10-tips-on-working-in-different-time-zones/ you are not immediately available to answer questions. The other PM that owns one item down on their backlog is available – so let’s work on that instead.

Con: There’s less motivation to stay connected

If the meeting owner doesn’t set the meeting up to be as effective as possible, then maybe the meeting can be better executed over email. With time and practice, I became better at noticing those feelings creeping up and found ways to engage myself and my energy elsewhere. It surprised me when I felt shameful for asking questions in meetings.

• We’d like to share our learnings and tips so that future teams don’t have to feel as much growing pain as we did.
• By hiring remote workers, you’ll never have to worry about geographical limitations again.

Using them is also an effective way to share meeting notes, create consensus and gather feedback. As a result of creating a wiki, you’ll be able to create transparency and stimulate a continuous flow of ideas and feedback. For everyone to understand the different times, use a simple timezone converter tool.

Combining synchronous and asynchronous communication modes

You could even include a reminder telling recipients to convert the indicated time to their local time zones. To help you manage your workday, we’ll share eight tips for seamless collaboration with overseas partners. If you travel the world frequently, knowing which a time zone you’re in relative to GMT is crucial—and it’s also important if you’re working with a distributed team.

We found that Same bed, different dreams is what could happen when people in a team design in isolation and forego sufficient alignment with one another. The work day got longer as we tried to hand off and sync at the beginning or end of our days with the overseas team. Essentially you’re working solely on one initiative in your queue for twenty minutes straight (no email, no LinkedIn, no Slack especially), and then you give yourself a five-minute break. During those five minutes, I would stretch or get some water before the next 20 minutes set begins. The moment I want to wrap up communication and get back to work, I just slowly start to lift my headphones, smile, nod, and turn my head back to my screen.

Working Across Timezones

When companies employ remote workers, real-time synchronous communication often becomes difficult as the time zones vary, and it becomes difficult to sync together. However, the time management tools and transparent communication between different team members help resolve these conflicts and ensure everyone is on the same page. The time zones of people working in a company has a big impact on different aspects such as project collaboration and communication between the team members. As remote work becomes a staple in the global workforce, managers are learning that globally distributed teams can benefit a company’s capacity to tap into the worldwide talent pool. But working remotely in different time zones comes with its own set of challenges. But the shift in which companies are now offering remote work options provides a clue to why time-zone bias is becoming worse.

• According to McKinsey, companies with a diverse workforce are 35% more likely to outperform competitors.
• Meeting hosts can’t just provide the same schedule in 24 time zones.
• The time zones of people working in a company has a big impact on different aspects such as project collaboration and communication between the team members.
• Our team at Adeva counts more than 80 remote employees, scattered across 11 different zones.
• Developers, perhaps, have it the easiest with code comments and pull requests, but everyone should share what’s happening in their own «manager of one» domain.

Everyone can look through these at their leisure, take notes, and return to your instructions or ask questions afterward. Do you want to improve your message writing skills when your team is working remotely? Next, use these suggestions to help your team communicate more effectively while working remotely. And that gives a visual overview of all the time zones in the world at https://remotemode.net/ the same time. Within Google Calendar, one of my absolute favorite ways to stay productive while working at home or freelancing, you can have your time zone, and a second one. Getting familiar with the map can help you visualize time zones before you even get to World Time Buddy in your browser (but, we still recommend using World Time Buddy to perfect your calculations).

To work effectively with a remote team, you’ll need to put in the effort and build strong relationships across time zones. Exercise, eat well, and practice mindfulness techniques like meditation or deep breathing. By taking care of yourself, you’ll be better equipped to handle the challenges of working remotely through various time zones and enjoy traveling the world. When scheduling meetings, tools like Doodle or Calendly can help you find a time that works for everyone. Remember to also take advantage of video conferencing tools like Zoom or Google Meet for face-to-face communication, which can help build rapport and trust among team members. When you’re working remotely in a different time zone, it can be easy to blur the lines between work and home life.

It’s tempting to believe that sending someone a fast email will save them time, while in reality, it may end up wasting more of their day. Pick up the phone and talk it out if you need something done quickly or want your coworker to make a choice right away. Everyone will have everything they need to get up and running as soon as they sign in for the day, regardless of what time it is.

Use an online calendar.

If remote employees don’t have overlap in work hours, there can be a lag between a question being asked and answered. Teams in traditional office settings sometimes measure productivity by how long each team member spends at their desk. But remote teams can fall into the «I’m online, so I’m being productive» trap, too.

• Now speaking of meetings, if we work with global teams, not everybody can make every single meeting.
• And that’s ok on a distributed team, as long as you can manage the time shift.
• For everyone to understand the different times, use a simple timezone converter tool.
• And that shows, again, where people are on more of a graph scale.
• Setting boundaries by having a designated workspace, establishing regular work hours, and taking breaks throughout the day are just a few tactics that you should be following to safeguard your personal health.
• Before a meeting, make sure you have an agenda, and ANY supporting material is send along with the agenda.
• This can be more challenging when you need to work in different time zones since there is a greater chance of misinterpretation.

So, to avoid burn out in one employee, switch meeting times weekly and make them more convenient for people around the globe. Or, you can have two different meetings in one day at two different times so that everyone can get a chance to join. A developer can be in a coworking place in Barcelona and the team lead can be on a business trip in Singapore, and the two of them can organize a face-to-face meeting in less than two minutes. You can always record a meeting and send it to an employee who missed it.

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This tip also applies to block out chaotic family members at home or even for those moments on Friday when everyone is feeling chattier at work. If you’re feeling like you’re always reacting, then here’s one change you can make. Those blocks of time are going to be crucial in helping your work and team in the long-term. I ended up naturally allotting more of my time than expected to calls, meetings, documentation, reading everything on Slack to keep up with all that I was missing while I was offline. I prioritized those projects over any strategic research and development.