Jul 8, 2021
This Summer, I’m Going To Try Run Only On Asynchronous Communications
Async is great. But can you get your colleagues to use it?
In less than a week, I’m planning on undertaking the first international travel that I’ve embarked upon in more than two years.
That means tearing myself away from my beloved home office (it’s where I get all my writing done!); trading somewhat reliable home internet connectivity for whatever’s available in a vacation rental; and hopefully spending a bit more time disconnecting while I focus on other things.
As I think about where I’ll be and how I can best structure my days to get some work done (without getting so much work done that there’s no actual vacation, of course!), I realize that this could be a great opportunity to continue exploring the virtues of asynchronous communication (#async) for those working in remote or hybrid environments.
Which is why when it came time to configure an autoresponder so that my clients wouldn’t think that I’ve fallen off the face of the earth, I opted for an unconventional approach:
Dear clients,
I’ll be travelling between July 12th and August 2nd with periodic access to email.
If I’m doing what I should be and disconnecting, replies will be a bit slower over this period. If I’m responding too quickly, please give out to me.
By the way, have you heard about asynchronous communications (if not, guide here)? I’m a big fan!
As I’ll be less responsive over this period, this would be a great time to send your project brief/ urgent messages / rants about my writing / general musings by one of the following channels:
And I’ll pick them up as soon as I can.
Looking forward to connecting!
- Daniel.
The #Async Advocate’s Challenge: Weaning Others Off Zoom
As soon as I hit the ‘save changes’ button on the above autoresponder message, I reflected upon how useful #async could be during the more normal course of events in the world when people are travelling.
For distributed teams:
- Large time zone differences can be worked out when both sides can settle upon an efficient way to communicate that doesn’t require both to be present at a meeting.
- Remote resources can do things like travel and take appropriate amounts of vacation while remaining somewhat contactable. In effect, it’s a way of enforcing basic boundaries. Choose the level of responsiveness that works for you and then find a platform where it most closely aligns with others’ expectations for contactability there. You can gently coerce colleagues to work around that.
- An async-first culture can allow resources to focus on deep work periods during which important deliverables are undertaken. Communication and information sharing can be siloed into separate ringfenced blocks of time.
While organizations like We Are Async are doing a great job at pushing awareness of the virtues of #async communication (note: it’s a Doist project), there’s still a sense that most of the few heavyweight async advocates doing the rounds online are either developing async tools themselves or are advocating from the vantage point of a company that’s already bought into the philosophy.
But where does that debate leave lone wolves like me who consult for clients but who also are the business?
If our clients and remote colleagues refuse to give up on Zoom and phone calls as the default mode of internal communication, then it’s unlikely that we’re going to make much headway advocating for the adoption of tools such as Loom and Yac. Perhaps the answer is just doing the best that we can. And hitching our hopes that the revolution will spread to those who we work for.
When You Think About It, All Communication Is #Async
As I was thinking through how best I could try structure my time working away from home this summer that both allowed me to achieve some level of productivity without hampering any relaxation, something else came to mind.
When you think about it, all communication is really asynchronous.
Two people can’t have a conversation when they’re speaking to one another at the same time. And even if you’re having an IM exchange, you have to read what the other party wrote before you type a reply.
There’s always a lag between communicating and awaiting your interlocutor’s response.
But the factors that distinguish #async tools from #sync ones are the extent of that lag and what kind of expectation both parties typically bring to the platform in terms of responsiveness.
That’s why even though Slack is commonly listed as an example of an async platform, I tend to bucket it more into the #sync side of the divide.
Coworkers commonly request reasonably fast if not instantaneous responses to Slack messages. The addition of a “you there?” appendage to the communication leaves little room to doubt that intention.
Can Async Be The Best Vacation Productivity Boundary?
When I got to thinking about what I feel like I need a break from during my upcoming period of partial disconnection, I realized — without even thinking about the word — that synchronous communications were what my mind needed to do without for a time.
That’s the part of my work-week that feels like work. That’s the part that’s fatiguing and stressful. When I’m in deep work mode and communicating periodically by email, I barely notice the time going by. If deep work is the fuel that (paradoxically) energizes me, then synchronous comms are like an insipid drain on the tank.
On any given day during the past two or so years, I’m constantly running between turning in deliverables and showing up to Zoom meetings. (While I may be a passionate advocate for #async, I can’t guarantee that those who I work with see things similarly. We all have different preferences.)
I need a break from a day — or a week — punctuated by Zoom meetings. I need a day free from feeling the sense of pressure to check Slack workspaces and respond to pings in a reasonably responsive manner before people escalate to email or WhatsApp to communicate that a two hour response lag over that channel was too much. I need a week — no make that a few of them — away from the strange kind of pressure that comes with striking up a relationship by video feed with somebody who’ve you’ve never met in person and possibly never will.
By contrast, the thought of responding to emails every few days from a more relaxed environment doesn’t daunt me. To the contrary, I look forward to having something to keep me engaged while I’m away (you could say I have a hard time shutting off). What I do need a break from, ultimately, is synchronous communications.
This summer I’m diving a bit deeper into the possibilities of remote work and the ability to work from new geographies. I envision minimizing unnecessary synchronous interactions as an integral part of that process.
