How Remote Teams Handle Async Work
Let’s paint a familiar picture: it’s 8:00am in North Carolina, you’ve just poured your coffee, and your Slack is already pinging with updates from teammates in Berlin, São Paulo, and Tokyo. The beauty (and headache) of global remote work is that someone, somewhere, is always online. How do remote teams keep projects moving when nobody’s in the same time zone? Enter asynchronous work—the unsung hero of distributed teams.
What the Heck Is Async Work, Anyway?
Async (asynchronous) work means you aren’t expected to respond instantly. Instead of the rapid-fire back-and-forth of office life, updates happen on your own schedule. You leave a document comment at night, and by morning, your colleague across the world has replied. It’s not just a time-saver; it’s a sanity-saver.
“Async workflows let me help with bedtime and still contribute to code reviews—without apologizing for being offline at 2pm.”
Why Async Is a Lifeline for Remote Developers
If you’ve ever tried to wrangle a standup call with three continents, you know the struggle. Async work means:
- Fewer interruptions — Real focus time, not just 10-minute sprints between meetings.
- Better documentation — Everything’s written down, so knowledge is searchable and preserved.
- More inclusive — Early riser? Night owl? Doesn’t matter. Everyone contributes on their own clock.
But let’s be real, async isn’t all rainbows. Sometimes, you wait hours for an answer. Decisions can drag. And, if you’re not careful, things slip through the cracks.
Case Study: Ship Fast, Sleep Well
Last quarter, my team shipped a SaaS integration for a client in Singapore. Here’s how we made async work our default, not our backup plan:
- We ditched daily standups for Notion updates. Each dev wrote a quick “yesterday/today/blockers” note by their local lunch break.
- All code reviews happened in GitHub PRs, with clear checklists so nobody was left guessing what to do next.
- For urgent discussions, we used Loom videos or short voice notes, not “just one quick call.”
The result? We hit our deadline, nobody had to join a 4am Zoom, and everyone actually used their PTO.
The Async Toolkit: Tools for Every Stage
Async isn’t just about tools, but let’s be honest—great tools make a difference. Here are my go-tos, plus a few alternatives:
| Need | My Pick | Alternatives |
|---|---|---|
| Project Docs & Collaboration | Notion | Confluence, Slite, Coda |
| Async Messaging | Slack (muted channels + reminders) | Twist, Mattermost, Zulip |
| Task Management | Linear | ClickUp, Jira, Trello |
| Code Reviews | GitHub / GitLab | Bitbucket, Phabricator |
| Video Updates | Loom | Vimeo, Screenity, Dropbox Capture |
Pro tip: If your team keeps getting sucked into Slack, try Twist—it’s built for async, with threads and no unread badge anxiety.
How to Set Up Async Workflows in 15 Minutes
Here’s a quick-start checklist I’ve used to help teams go async—no all-hands meeting required:
- Define your “async hours”—when will people not be expected to reply?
- Pick 1-2 tools for docs and messaging. Don’t overcomplicate.
- Agree on a daily or weekly update format (Notion, or a Slack channel with a template).
- Set up notification rules—mute non-essential channels, turn off after-hours alerts.
- For code, require clear PR descriptions and checklist items.
- Use Loom or video messages instead of “quick calls” for anything that needs a human touch.
- Review workflow every 2 weeks and tweak. No workflow is set in stone.
Pros and Cons: The Real Talk
Async Pros
- *Deep work* is possible—distraction-free hours for coding, writing specs, or designing features.
- Team members feel trusted, not micromanaged.
- Documentation becomes your team’s “second brain.”
- Work-life balance is real. You can walk the dog, cook lunch, or hit the gym—nobody’s waiting on you.
Async Cons
- Decisions can take longer. Sometimes, you need to nudge folks for feedback.
- Junior devs might feel isolated without “over-the-shoulder” support.
- If the team isn’t disciplined with docs and updates, things go missing fast.
- You’ll still need some real-time time (think: monthly retros, onboarding, big launches).
Tips for Making Async Actually Work
- Overcommunicate—write more than you think you need to. Clarity beats brevity in async.
- Use templates for everything: standups, PRs, meeting notes. Templates = consistency.
- Respect “offline” hours. Never use “URGENT” unless it’s truly urgent. (Spoiler: it almost never is.)
- Emphasize written feedback—it’s faster to skim than replay a 30-minute video rant.
- Celebrate wins publicly, even if it’s a Slack emoji party. Async doesn’t have to feel robotic.
Links & Resources
- Notion — All-in-one docs and more
- Twist — Async messaging with threads
- Loom — Video updates for async teams
- Linear — Task management for modern devs
- GitLab’s Guide to Async
Real life: The first week you go async, you’ll miss a ping or two, and worry you’re not “doing it right.” That’s normal. It gets easier—and you’ll never want to go back.
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