These platforms enable seamless collaboration and ensure that your work is accessible no matter where you are in the world. Planning ahead involves adjusting your schedule to align with the local time zone of your next destination. This preemptive approach ensures a smooth transition in your work commitments and personal activities. The remote form will remain profitable and correct for individual solutions or small businesses and for large business players. For example, it will significantly increase the talent pool by overcoming geographic barriers to finding qualified employees.

The Best Way to Work with a Global Team

In this article, we’ll explore the benefits, challenges, and essential best practices of working across time zones. Adjusting your work hours or finding a compromise that works for everyone involved may be necessary to navigate scheduling conflicts. This might mean starting work earlier or later in the day or being flexible with deadlines and project timelines.

For digital nomads who collaborate with teams scattered around the globe, time zone differences can complicate the simplest tasks. Scheduling meetings becomes a puzzle, as finding a time that is convenient for everyone can be nearly impossible. This can lead to delays in communication, hinder decision-making processes, and extend the time it takes to complete projects. The effort required to manage these differences can also add to the mental load, consuming energy that could be better spent on productive tasks. Additionally, the risk of miscommunication increases, potentially leading to conflicts or misunderstandings that further disrupt workflow. In an increasingly global workplace, professionals are no longer confined to local teams.

Increased Focus and Productivity

For example, writing an email, sending a Loom video, or leaving a voice message for someone so they can respond to it whenever works best with their schedule (and 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.

Kristina @ Support Adventure

  • If you’re working remotely, you may consider renting a desk at a co-working space.
  • TimeCamp is a great solution to measure your employees’ productivity and time they spend on work.
  • And today, I’m excited to share these tips with you, and I hope this will help you succeed in facing this popular concern among aspiring remote workers and digital nomads.
  • This can create half-year mismatches in local time compared to nearby provinces.
  • The transition will become difficult if you are accustomed to completing tasks one at a time.

Because of that, if somebody wants to fill your day with unimportant meetings or even coffee living and working in different time zones dates, your schedule is wide open, and you kinda just say, “yeah, sure I got the time”. I use a calendar scheduler to have any customers or team members book times to meet with me within the 9-2 time slot. It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking that sending someone a quick email will save them time, when it may actually end up wasting more of their day. If you need something done urgently or want your co-worker to make a decision ASAP, pick up the phone and talk it out. There’s no need to wait for a conference call or meeting to start talking when you work together from the same office. But when working with a distributed team, communicating takes more effort.

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As a freelancer and part-time digital nomad, this happens to me year-round, even when I may be in the same time zone as a client. I had to learn with these clients that the due date they requested was the day before in my time zone. With a major time difference, you may have to submit work early or structure your day differently to get work in on time. Always, always, send a calendar invite to clients when working across time zones. This will guarantee that you’ve got the correct time and that you both know when you’re actually going to meet.

By attending webinars or industry events that cater to different regions, you can broaden your connections and enrich your career development. This access can provide opportunities for mentorship, collaborations, or even job transitions within the global market. Try these tips on how to work in different time zones to guarantee smooth communication, productivity, and successful results. Google Drive or other project management tools are excellent for storing notes. Lastly, make sure meeting notes are comprehensive, and include information such as decisions made, action items, or project deadlines. When meetings are unavoidable, recording them and sharing detailed notes can help colleagues who are unable to attend.

  • By attending webinars or industry events that cater to different regions, you can broaden your connections and enrich your career development.
  • Thanks to this tool you can learn what’s the time in other time zones.
  • When you’re working in a distributed fashion, learning to be an effective async communicator is going to be the biggest factor in your success.
  • However, shedding light on this subject can surely help you have a better understanding of your working habits.
  • It wouldn’t be nice if you woke someone up in the middle of the night.

This makes it essential to plan meetings and tasks well in advance. Without careful scheduling, unexpected delays or late-night calls can disrupt productivity and rest. At Remitly, we know how vital it is to stay connected, especially if you have friends and family abroad.

Difficulty in Scheduling

According to the geography realm website, there are more than 24 time zones in the world. This can be overwhelming when working remotely and trying to coordinate with clients, colleagues or services. When working across time zones, it’s essential to establish clear boundaries between work and personal time. Communicate your working hours with colleagues, ensuring everyone is aware of your availability.

Effective strategies include using world clock apps, scheduling around core work or awake hours, and communicating with your colleagues about availability. Tools like Google Calendar convert time automatically if you note the correct zone. Rotating meeting times also ensures no single group is always inconvenienced by early morning or late-night calls. There are several curious details of the Canadian time system which can be confusing. Firstly, while most time zones are one hour apart, the province of Newfoundland and Labrador is just half an hour apart.

If you open a world map, you’ll see that Spain belongs to the same time zone as the UK and Portugal, meridian-wise. Surprisingly, Spain’s not in this, but in the Central European Time zone (CET), like France, Germany, and even Poland, located more than 1,300 miles to the east. The Canary Islands are the only exception because, unlike mainland Spain, they use the Greenwich Mean Time zone (GMT), just like the UK. Even though you may think that this depends just on your own sleeping habits, another crucial factor is your time zone. Companies are increasingly striving to measure remote work sustainability, but it’s not an easy feat. Learn best practices for evaluating the environmental impact of employees working from home.

On TimeCamp’s World Clock you can check time at almost every place in the world with just one click.

Check the connection quality before communicating in conferences or personal correspondence. According to the current research, in 80% of cases, workers agree to stay with their employers, if they switch to a remote work system. Moreover, some agree with even a slight reduction in pay, getting a more flexible schedule. Fellow auto-joins your video calls to get you the most accurate transcripts, summaries and action items from your meetings. Remote workers can come from anywhere in the world, which means they have unique perspectives to share with their colleagues.

Approximately 46% of commercials switched to full or partial telecommuting in the prior year. However, we can’t also deny the fact that it also comes with its own set of challenges too. By allocating all this time to “work,” you put off the important stuff and fill up your day with tons of fluff. I know what I need to accomplish during this shift and can execute effectively, with limited distractions around me. Use this guide to make you convey your message clearly with remote communication. When you’re working in a distributed fashion, learning to be an effective async communicator is going to be the biggest factor in your success.

Don’t forget, therefore, to plan ahead, set clear expectations, leverage technology, be flexible, compromise, use asynchronous communication, and prioritize self-care. As a remote worker, you surely realize by now how clear communication is quintessential. Be transparent about your work hours, availability, and response times. Let your clients or colleagues know how soon they can expect to hear back from you and if there will be any delays due to time zone differences. To avoid time-sensitive surprises, plan as far in advance as possible.