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Working asynchronously

blog.remote.com

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Re: Working asynchronously

#21

Post by hanniabu »

omarhaneef wrote: post #2

I feel like there is an insight here about working by yourself, too, that I cannot quite put my finger on. Even if there is no team, you don't want to self-interrupt your own work. Well, we know that hence we invest in internet blockers etc. However, if you are interrupted, it is best if you recover quickly. That is to say, if you can set up your own work so that it is planned in bite size components, and you know ex…

I agree with this, but there's a pitfall. Lets say you want to get conversation done at either the start/end of day or both. This is efficient because then you can work interrupted throughout the day. However, when you're not available to answer every ping right away or your "online" status isn't green, then it puts you in a bad light because the managers think you aren't working and/or don't care/aren't a team player.

Re: Working asynchronously

#22

Post by omarhaneef »

jsharf wrote: post #19
omarhaneef wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you use a tool for this?

I'm not the same person, but I have a small notebook and pen. Any time I think "Shit, how am I going to remember this if I get interrupted right now?", I quickly scribble down as much as I can and continue working. This is invaluable when I do get interrupted. I do this basically any time I feel like my short-term memory is overwhelmed with facts, and as a result the notebook has effectively become NVRAM for my brain…

This is the closest to what I do myself -- I always have pen and paper on my desk -- but the real issue is that I don't take a note when interrupted because of social pressures (its rude to ignore someone for a few seconds). I don't even do it for myself for self interruptions because I forget to.

Re: Working asynchronously

#23

Post by omarhaneef »

merlincorey wrote: post #13
omarhaneef wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you use a tool for this?

I'm not the person you asked, but I do the same using Emacs' org-mode[0], but there are many tools around such as the Leo Editor[1], or really, any editor with a decent markup language support will do. I store all my org files in git repositories and sync them across devices, allowing me to work on multiple devices and worry less about losing a particular device. [0] https://karl-voit.at/orgmode/ [1] https://leoedito…

Tried this for a while, but unless I have the window open, I don't use it. I use Wunderlist to track the "projects" that I have in my head at any point in time.

Re: Working asynchronously

#24

Post by OJFord »

omarhaneef wrote: post #2

I feel like there is an insight here about working by yourself, too, that I cannot quite put my finger on. Even if there is no team, you don't want to self-interrupt your own work. Well, we know that hence we invest in internet blockers etc. However, if you are interrupted, it is best if you recover quickly. That is to say, if you can set up your own work so that it is planned in bite size components, and you know ex…

I find I do much better at coming back to solo/personal stuff if I use an issue tracker anyway, even in the early stages where I'm not so much managing bugs as chunking into bite-size pieces as you describe, so I always try to do that now.

It makes me less likely to leave the repo with some staged changes, some unstagrd changes, and no idea what I was doing when I come back to it - but even if that does happen it makes it easier to work out.

Re: Working asynchronously

#25

Post by bwb »

z3ugma wrote: post #18

The way we've struck a balance at our company is to only allow meetings in the mornings. In the afternoon, everyone can be off Slack, heads-down, and programming or doing other deep work. This halves the number of timeslots that are available to have time stolen from you, but allows us to get the empathy and quick resolution that real-time communication enables.

Ya that is a good one, we did something similar with meetings only on M/T/W, and any outside of that had to be directly product-related and engineer only.

Re: Working asynchronously

#26

Post by laurex »

I work on a distributed team on an asynchronous video app (Marco Polo) which makes a lot of conversations easier (sharing bugs, non-urgent conversations, personal connection) but we still Zoom for many meetings. Asynch has virtues even for in person teams but it just isn't optimal for everything, especially discussions leading to decisions that can then be executed upon.

Re: Working asynchronously

#27

Post by bloopernova »

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #9

I've managed multiple remote, asynchronous teams across multiple countries. When people work in opposite time zones, asynchronous communication is mandatory. When it works, it's a great experience. However, async communication isn't appropriate for every situation, as the article admits. Some times, the most efficient way forward is to schedule a call where all parties can work out the solution in 15 minutes of real-…

I think that there is a tragedy-of-the-commons issue here that some teams or organizations just aren't very good at tackling.

Everyone's time is a valuable resource. It's quick and easy to demand synced communication, but that depletes the time people can dedicate to longer tasks that should not be interrupted.

Now take the team's collective time. That's the commons, and poor work discipline drains that shared resource. It takes discipline to write procedures, policies, boring documentation, or to make sure that the authoritative source of truth for your project still reflects reality.

Those 3 days of back and forth emails, or the 15 minute working session, may need to exist for some situations. However I've found that people can work to reduce those 3 days to several hours as long as the answers to some questions are available in up to date documentation.

I have a couple of team members right now who don't want to write certain documentation, or don't feel they need to edit existing documentation to improve its legibility. The most often heard excuse has been "it only takes me 15 minutes on a call to do the task". Which may seem fine from that perspective. That person doesn't realize that they've spent multiple days worth of hours spending 15 minutes on something when if they had spent 2 hours writing the documentation, they'd be saving precious time and priceless context switching.

(I'm a new team lead. I'm enjoying it greatly, and find these sorts of inefficiencies both fascinating and revolting)

Re: Working asynchronously

#30

Post by [deleted] »

bloopernova wrote: post #27
PragmaticPulp wrote: post #9

I've managed multiple remote, asynchronous teams across multiple countries. When people work in opposite time zones, asynchronous communication is mandatory. When it works, it's a great experience. However, async communication isn't appropriate for every situation, as the article admits. Some times, the most efficient way forward is to schedule a call where all parties can work out the solution in 15 minutes of real-…

I think that there is a tragedy-of-the-commons issue here that some teams or organizations just aren't very good at tackling. Everyone's time is a valuable resource. It's quick and easy to demand synced communication, but that depletes the time people can dedicate to longer tasks that should not be interrupted. Now take the team's collective time. That's the commons, and poor work discipline drains that shared resour…

[deleted]
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