Communication Patterns

Chapter 13. Remote Time

Taking both time and energy into consideration is necessary when communicating with colleagues, other businesses, and customers. Whether you are working remotely or in an office, you likely need to communicate with someone in another time zone or who works different hours.

Working across time zones and with multiple working patterns has benefits and downsides. For example, you could hand over work to a team in a time zone behind yours at the end of your working day so that it does not sit idle until you start work again. You will also find that you end up with a more diverse set of ideas and practices from a more diverse group of colleagues, escaping from local echo chambers to see things differently. On the other hand, you may get frustrated when someone you need a response from has already finished work for the day, or expend a lot of effort finding a time that all required meeting attendees are available for a meeting, due to lack of overlapping working hours.

Tip

Whether you are communicating asynchronously or synchronously, you should aim to communicate regularly to keep everyone updated.

This chapter explores patterns that will help you overcome hurdles with time, working patterns, and your and others’ energy and productivity so that your remote and hybrid communication becomes more efficient.

Synchronize Time

For those who live in a country that falls completely within one time zone, it is easy to forget that some countries have many time zones, ...