But I put a lot of pressure on myself to have a tangible output that validated how much I was working. It’s remarkable how much you can trust your inner dialogue over actual proof. 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. Or it was my fault for not being there when they discussed the answer to the question.
- Trump’s lawyers had asked the state appeals court to either reduce the amount of money he had to post or stay the award without him posting any security while he appeals Engoron’s order.
- Working remotely is the best decision I have made in the last couple of years.
- “If you’re working two timezones that don’t overlap much, why not split your shift into two instead of doing the same number of hours consecutively?” asks Kelly.
- “The hardest thing to do is to make sure you don’t end up working 12-hour days routinely,” Kelly notes.
When your global teammates feel like their schedule is respected, they might feel happier at their job, less stressed, or have an easier time tuning out of work communication outside of their main work hours. Ultimately, these things will help boost job retention, productivity, and your team’s overall performance. With this awesome tool, you can just video-record yourself and your working remotely in a different time zone screen and go through presentations, audits, implementations, walk-throughs, or anything you want to share with your team or colleagues. Then, you just need to share a link with them, and they will be able to view the video when and as many times as they want. This is a true gem for digital nomads wanting to be more productive and avoid endless (and sometimes useless) meetings.
Companies successfully working across time zones
Some remote companies have completely flexible hours as long as you can adequately communicate with your colleagues and get the job done. On many HubSpot marketing teams, if we schedule a meeting that requires people in other timezones to wake up early or stay up late, we try to be empathetic to those colleagues in some way. Once you and your team establish timezones boundaries and preferred work hours, respect them. This means that if you need something from a global teammate, you determine how urgent the task is before sending it. Or, this could mean that you develop a virtual team meeting schedule that fits within everyone’s active work hours — rather than making some teammates call in late at night or in the early morning. Eliminating a dependence on time zones for synchronous communication requires some significant shifts in how your team works.
- The tool shown above is one that our awesome developer Dan made just for Buffer, and it helps us all a ton to know what’s going on with any teammate at a glance.
- Over the years, though, I’ve developed a few tips and tricks that have helped me navigate the complexities of working across different time zones.
If remote employees don’t have overlap in work hours, there can be a lag between a question being asked and answered. There are companies that expect their employees or freelancers to be available for only two or four overlapping hours instead of eight. They ask for a few hours so you can have meetings with your colleagues. They want to be sure that there is enough possibility to communicate properly. Many remote companies try to make the communications as asynchronous as possible. Sometimes it is too complicated to explain or too sensitive to do it over email.
Schedule any meetings during the times everyone can attend
The ability to hand off work is a productivity benefit, but it’s also motivator since you know you must accomplish tasks so you can hand them off to co-workers at day’s end. “It puts a little pressure on you to get your work done,” says TechCrunch’s Russell. And that’s nice—we all need human interaction, and it’s great that you can still get that without being in the same room. Caribbean countries are in a similar time zone as well to most of the Americas. For London and the rest of GMT, Brazil is two hours ahead of Colombia most of the time.
If the team sticks to a traditional 9-to-5 schedule, there’s not even a single hour of overlap. So if team members want to have a stand-up meeting, their protocol might be to have one that alternates between an 8am start time for San Francisco on some days, and a 6pm finish for London on other days. That could be fostered through social meetings thanks to video chat and conference calls.
Determine everyone’s preferred work hours and time zone
Use this article as your guide to overcome these challenges and you’ll be well on your way to building strong relationships across time zones. You can use an online tool like TimeAndDate.com to determine the time zone your colleague is in. You can also try asking them what times they are available during, and when their day starts/ends so you know how much overlap there will https://remotemode.net/ be with yours. When you are looking for employees or business partners, it can be tough to find the right person in an industry where ‘who you know’ is just as important as what you know. By hiring remote workers, you’ll never have to worry about geographical limitations again. If so, then you know the challenges in staying on the same page that come with working remotely.
- 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.
- When you meet frequently with the same people, take time to understand when they work remotely.
- Use online tools like World Time Buddy or Every Time Zone to help you visualize and plan your day accordingly.
- Teach your remote team to be flexible about time, though, and everyone’s lives will be easier.
- Ideally, your company will set up Google Drive, Dropbox, or whatever file-sharing system you use so files are automatically accessible to the entire company.
It grinds my gears when I’m in the work groove, my battery flashes red at 5%, and I look up and see all the seats near outlets are gone. With the time on my calendar, strategy demanded that I don’t ignore and deprioritize it for more “quick-wins.” It validates the legitimacy of doing work that doesn’t always have an output. Time is precious, especially when the lines from work and home are blurred. 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.