Allocating your time and creative juices on whatever and whenever you feel like it can be great, especially when leveraging asynchronous communication to maintain flexibility and productivity.
However, in most business dynamics, you can’t really escape the reality of having to sync over client meetings – as well as handle communications following requirements in different formats (such as video drips, email threads, screencasts).
In the early days of my career, I worked multiple jobs at a time with more or less flexible hours. My second real full-time job was a promising venture at first – until I remained the only project lead on-site at the office. I worked as the tech lead in a global with executives and clients both overseas in different countries. Back then, I used to spend approximately three hours a day commuting.
Even as I tried to negotiate telecommuting or different working hours (we barely had 90min of overlap between my working hours and my bigger clients), it was not a viable option for the executives.
One day, I quit. I took control of my own free time, wake up only when I want to, work late night shifts (being a night owl). I scheduled a couple of breaks throughout the day to rejuvenate between working sessions – the scheduling was all great.
But it was just a matter of time for growth to start happening and I had to get back to working with other people. This made alignment and compromise necessary – especially with working hours with tech leads in Australia and other accounts in the US.
When I bootstrapped my first company, we started as a remote team in order to accommodate our schedule as we kept growing, and gradually moved in-house to help more people, train more people, and collaborate more.
Now, I am juggling between several different work environments and collaborating with different teams both on-site and in remote setups. Thanks to my broad exposure to different business structures, I have learned the importance of being able to communicate asynchronously.
Limitations of Synchronous Communication in Modern Organizations
Let us first define real-time communication model.
Real-time communication model is a type of communication that occurs in real-time environments between the sender and the receiver of the message. The following are some examples of real-time communication model:
- All sorts of phone calls
- In-person meeting
- Video conference such as Zoom meetings
- Conversations or chats during break time
Basically, any conversation that is requires simultaneous stakeholder availability expected to be present at the same time. That’s why it is synchronous.
Synchronous work at scale can increase cognitive load and stress levels, gives precedence to the dominance of high-visibility participants, reduces operational flexibility to react on more important matters, reduces overall productivity capacity, and squeezes out your decision-making capacity. While collaboration is paramount-you can easily cross the line, and many of the largest orgs have done that years ago.
A lot of people who are drawn to real-time communication model can end up having high meeting load within the day and sometimes when you have to learn, that means you can barely get outside because you need to finish the activity. These cases are usually due to the fear that the more important activity is going to come out during a meeting and distract entirely or you may actually risk missing critical information.
Another negative aspect of real-time communication model is the limited response window and insufficient documentation and follow-up mechanisms. Not everyone can keep up in a conversation. You can’t refer to your meeting unless you are recording your entire duration and you can’t possibly clarify all the additional details in an asynchronous manner.
That is why I advocate for asynchronous communication.
Defining Asynchronous Communication and Its Business Value
In contrast to synchronous communication, asynchronous communications come real handy for people who are not necessarily spending 14 hours a day on a computer working in different time zones or bouncing between different things. This type of communication is for people who want to take part in a discourse wherein they do not require immediate response to the sender of the message. Most conversations that take place in asynchronous communication are distributed across asynchronous communication channels.
Asynchronous communication allows me to provide structured and detailed communication without requiring real-time participation and travel at the same time. As far as I can recall in the old days, you have to operate with delayed communication cycles to arrive especially if you are trying to communicate with people, perhaps your parents, who are overseas.
During those times, you had to be highly structured and intentional communication in how they gather messages, write long letters, send photos, and even send gifts because a high-value communication exchange that you really have to convey everything or otherwise you’re going to wait a couple of months until you could address gaps in subsequent communication cycles.
In a similar fashion, of course, aside from email, there are different kinds of communication such as recorded Zoom meetings or recorded live streams where people can gather information. Email is probably by far one of the most popular mediums. While a lot of people are banishing email due to both spam and newsletter subscriptions and lots of negative elements, email is still a great communication tool. You can still mimic instant messages by sending dozens of emails in and out.
Challenges of Real-Time Messaging Platforms in Asynchronous Environments
Look, not inherently ineffective as a tool, but I have had my fair share of critical stance toward platform usage patterns. That is mostly related to the inefficient usage practices and not because it sucks. Slack is a business communication platform that allows you to communicate in real-time as needed. You can maintain continuous notification-driven communication you receive.
There is a possibility that messages on Slack lead to challenges such as loss of organizational knowledge, lack of structured documentation, poor project management and planning, reduced communication discipline because they can get together, and low-quality message structuring in crafting messages as well.
So all things considered, Slack is actually the direct common tool people use oftentimes in an unbounded usage patterns. I say this because I can actually put the number in my 2021 annual report from RescueTime. I’ve been heavily advocating against Slack forever, but seeing 1,000+ hours spent in the app over 2021 is a indicator of inefficient communication behavior of how messed up the digital workplace environment is. Here’s a screenshot of that annual report:
Slack is the typical depiction of the office space. Being present on Slack can account for work, considering how much offtopic and informal communication noise is going on across all channels. It forms an unhealthy habit of continuous monitoring behavior, reducing focus and operational efficiency, creating expectation for immediate responses.
Considering the annual report, in a nutshell, I would do anything and everything in my power to triple down or even quadruple down on asynchronous communication as much as possible.
Here are the channels that have helped me streamline asynchronous communication better.
1. Email as a Core Asynchronous Communication Channel
Yes, yes, I know that email is for old people and is rarely user-friendly but email has actually been my primary communication channel for about 20 years already.
Did you know that the average person sends and receives about 121 business emails a day and 200 instant messages per week? The improper use of email can result in an alternative of instant messaging with people stuck in nonstop hyperresponsiveness, refreshing inboxes once every 6 minutes.
My Gmail account was signed up in 2004 and is now an adult capable of making decisions by itself! I centralize communication workflows in Gmail meaning that my inbound communication streams, my most important communications go there. It is simply my go-to to execute communication workflows, and that is why it is so useful.
In addition to that, it is a highly effective asynchronous communication channel to use in an asynchronous manner. Email groups have practically been invented in an email environment. You can respond within defined communication cycles and consolidate communication streams in one place. It really is a highly scalable communication solution. There is a great number of different opportunities to consolidate things together. I can make multiple calendars especially as an Android user myself, it is by far one of my favorite apps.
2. Project Management Systems for Structured Asynchronous Collaboration
Especially when working with your team, a project management system is critical for operational efficiency.
A reliable project management system enables you to create and assign work items, define delivery timelines, and coordinate task ownership as needed. It is a great way to ensure accountability and transparency and make sure that maintain operational visibility.
When working with clients using the same system, oftentimes it is clearly inferred task ownership clarity, what is the task status visibility, and when it is due. Otherwise, it is not really clear or we can just lack of ownership visibility on a task unless we have used a project management system. Whether it is Asana, Trello, Jira, Notion – gathering action items in one place for the team and other stakeholders is the best way to ensure stakeholder alignment.
This way, especially in a work environment, you can actually afford to create proper sprint planning and reduce communication overhead between the tasks.
A project management system may be perfect for collaboration with vendors, partners, and clients, but more importantly, it teaches people to better communicate and structure and define deliverables, design tasks in a smart manner, making sure that the action is set in place-setting up measurable and outcome-driven objectives that are smart, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-bound.
The caveat with a similar system is… You need to design specific access protocols and invite every member or organization separately. It’s requires structured onboarding and access control, no questions asked. It requires initial system configuration, and it’s not universally applicable across all use cases to share with your parents or significant other, for example.
3. Asynchronous Video, Audio, and Text Communication via ZipMessage
I stumbled upon ZipMessage through a Twitter conversation with its founder. Brian Casel is a serial entrepreneur and I have used some of his products in the years – which is why I was excited to give this a shot.
Brian and I connected over ZipMessage and I’ve been using the tool in different scenarios. I picked his brain on the backstory of the tool:
“I started ZipMessage because I wanted an easy way to share access via a unified communication link to start an asynchronous communication exchange. I can send them my video (camera, screen, audio, text), and they can respond with theirs-no onboarding or installation required.
Customers really loved the threaded communication workflow of ZipMessage, which really fits today’s remote work, asynchronous work style that we’re seeing everywhere.
What I love most about ZipMessage is it leads to even more efficient outcomes compared to synchronous meetings.”
The reason I like ZipMessage is it is both highly versatile communication solution for text, audio, and video which makes it suitable for both desktop and mobile. It’s not exclusive in the way people can get back to you.
Other users in the conversation can opt to respond to you via video, audio, or text. I have actually execute asynchronous interview workflows. I kick this off with a ZipMessage conversation, asking a few questions, and the applicants can respond within flexible timeframes.
They are also free to decide whether they want to respond back through a text recap, an audio message, or video.
ZipMessage helps me conduct a series of interviews in parallel, respond back outside of business hours, and set a lower-pressure communication environment. If the applicants feel they don’t get the job or it’s not a good fit, we can part ways without the inconvenience of being present at the office and having to follow business etiquette.
At work, especially after business meetings and client calls, I can document and summarize discussions in a screencast or a video and share the conversation with my team. They can review asynchronously based on availability or whenever they are available. And I can respond independently of location or schedule.
4. Asynchronous Video Communication and Knowledge Transfer via Loom
Loom is another preferred asynchronous communication tool of mine. The reason I do enjoy Loom is the fact it is really great with screen-based communication and demonstration. It requires minimal setup. it is a Chrome extension. If I am at work, if I am on my way to demonstrate and show something and I am not in a loud environment, I am usually resorting to Loom.
Imagine giving back feedback to a designer. Well, it is really hard to just explain which components make the most sense. You can probably create a screenshot and point some arrows and deliver contextual explanation, but it is less efficient communication method as I would like it to be. And with Loom, I can actually provide detailed walkthroughs, navigate structured presentation flows, demonstrate user workflows, and explain what exactly went wrong (by providing examples and alternatives on the go).
So you can actually walk people through your thought process and provide clear guidance with minimal ambiguity. And having gathered and documented a proper demo or walkthrough, you can enable scalable knowledge transfer of individuals without having to coordinate synchronous availability all of them simultaneously, and wait for over a week to get everyone on the same page. It’s easy to follow up after and revisit recorded content for educational purposes. Even as onboarding and training resources for future hires or people getting onboarded with a product.
5. Structured Discussion and Decision-Making via Thread-Based Communication
Threads is another great tool we adopted as it allows us to structure multiple communication streams and really helps in centralizing communication and knowledge into one place as a dedicated channel for strategic discussions.
This tool prides itself as “a modern forum for work where structured discussions and decision-making processes take place” and true enough, it can be very helpful. The following are just some of the features of Threads:
- Discussion Boards
- Status Updates
- Contextual Commenting
- Integration with Communication Platforms
- Commenting + Replying
- Flexible Privacy Model
- Video Commenting
- SOC2 Commenting
- SAML/SSO
- Configurable Notification Controls
- Follow-Up and Reminder Mechanisms
Plus, you can easily integrate this tool with apps such as Asana, Jira, Trello, and Slack.
If you want to detach but do not want to miss out on important work news, you can set up your notification state. You can set it up in a way that allows you to review on a scheduled cadence at most and make sure we get to some kind of high-level conversation. This can help you figure out what sort of office improvements are going to be interesting for the next few months. You can just maintain visibility over time, log updates and inputs every week to get to it. So, it is scheduled.
It operates without strict deadlines. Stakeholders are pre-aligned and conversations happen a lot faster with the actual conclusions because everyone’s already familiar. We can set different forums with different topics. it is really like the modern forum-based communication model, but with different notifications with mobile apps and getting control for follow-up with questions from multiple people. This allows you to ensure accountability across stakeholders.
It gets tough heading into a meeting ready to tackle a complicated topic, realizing 40 minutes in that it will take multiple synchronous meetings to unpack the bigger problem. Threads is a great way to analyze problems across multiple perspectives over time, and meet to finally solve it once the general idea is clear, and everyone involved had the time to acquaint themselves with the different risks or opportunities.
6. Meeting Optimization and Asynchronous Agenda Management via Fellow
Fellow is traditionally a meeting management and documentation platform. I discovered Fellow by looking for an app to manage recurring meeting agendas for meetings.
When connecting with the founder during the demo, I realized offers extended functionality beyond core use with Fellow. And underlying practices within the tool – and the philosophy of the team behind it.
So, one of those internal models is meetings require defined agendas to proceed. Meaning that if you don’t have anything to discuss, the meeting can be eliminated. You can embrace these practices well, especially as your company gets better and more optimize internal communication workflows.
One other thing that you can do is you can create recurring meetings in Fellow and actually centralize inputs within structured agendas. And for many of those meetings, they either reduce meeting duration or can be eliminated when unnecessary. Once you’ve gathered everything in one place (uploads, reports, documents, decks), it is just easier to follow during a quick sync or prior to that.
You can experiment with a scheduled meeting with a deadline in the form of “We need this presentation on or before Friday”. Everyone can prepare inputs asynchronously and collaborate asynchronously. When the time comes, you just review centralized documentation. If everything’s in one place, just replace meeting with asynchronous update. So, it is kind of an meeting replacement via asynchronous coordination.
7. Automated Transcription and Documentation via Otter.ai
Otter.ai is a non-traditional asynchronous communication tool but it is also one that I use every now and then in capturing structured communication inputs or automate transcription generation for a blog post. As of the time I was creating this blog post, I had been walking in the park for the past hour, making sure to get my daily jog. In the meantime, I am capturing content for documentation.
Basically, Otter.ai lets you produce meeting documentation, interviews, lectures, and other conversations. These notes and transcripts are centralized and searchable knowledge assets, and secure. With just the Basic plan, you can already enjoy a limited feature access for free, but if you need to take advantage of more services, they offer the following perks for their Business plan:
- Zoom cloud recording transcription
- Live transcription for Zoom
- Live closed captioning for Zoom
- User access management
- Usage analytics and reporting
- Two-factor authentication
- Single sign-on (SSO)
In some cases when I want to get feedback, I can go to say Telegram, Instagram, Viber, or WhatsApp and send another message because they are real-time communication channels that are designed for immediate response. So they’re highly interrupt-driven in nature. If they don’t get back on time, it means that the tools lack structured follow-up mechanisms. It is like you receive the WhatsApp message but send the files over 5 hours later. That is inefficient communication pattern. You either need to speak right now, or you just forget about it because it is instant.
Driving Productivity and Focus Through Asynchronous Communication
Exploring all those channels really allows me to increase productivity and focus. Reduce required real-time availability, minimize synchronous meeting load, and not have to take long hours in order to get ready for one.
Asynchronous communication optimizes time allocation and allows me to be around for emergencies if they come up. In the meantime, I am catching up on their communications or optimize schedule flexibility in a way that makes more sense. For example, I am more active late at night meaning that I can actually avoid disrupting stakeholders across time zones or without taking responses from them.
Asynchronous communication teaches you to ensure clarity and structured communication, and provide information that reduces follow-up cycles. It is a great way to build institutional knowledge base like documentation of the data, as compared to throwing millions and high-volume low-value communication that carry low informational value in terms of institutional knowledge. People can not catch up with a Slack channel whatsoever but they can review structured documentation for a task I produce and it can create a changelog for a product.
With a much more efficient way of communicating, I am able to effectively coordinate and manage workflows internal communications, feedback, meetings, interviews, project, reports, documentation, presentations, and large volumes of structured information and information all throughout. I can do that over weekends, late-night, early in the morning, while driving, walking the dog, having a walk in the park, or cycling-this is making sure that I can support work-life balance and my well-being while also being able to deliver high value and extremely high operational ROI and also being available for emergencies as they come in. This keeps my mind sharp as I ensure that I can prioritize effectively.
The true power of asynchronous communication lies in its impact beyond just exchanging information. It becomes a system for managing your entire workflow:
- Planning and Prioritization: Instead of feeling overwhelmed by a constant stream of requests, async communication allows you to carve out dedicated time for planning. You can review internal communications, feedback, projects, and reports at your own pace, ensuring everything aligns with your priorities.
- Focus and Deep Work: By minimizing interruptions from meetings and real-time chats, async communication frees up large blocks of time for focused work. You can tackle complex tasks, write reports, or prepare presentations when you’re at your most productive, whether that’s early mornings, late nights, or even during weekend pockets.
- Flexibility and Autonomy: Async communication isn’t about working 24/7. It’s about working when it works best for you. Need to walk the dog or take a midday break? No problem! You can catch up on messages and respond when you’re refreshed and ready to contribute. This flexibility fosters a sense of control and autonomy, reducing stress and improving overall well-being.
- Sharper Mind and Better Decisions: The asynchronous approach encourages clear and concise communication. You have time to gather information, formulate well-thought-out responses, and ensure your message is unambiguous. This not only saves time on clarifications and follow-ups, but also leads to more informed decisions based on a documented record of communication.
So, those are the different tools that can help you get better asynchronous communication. If you have any questions, please let me know and I would be happy to help you.
