That said, if you have several days (or more) before your trip, sleep planning is highly recommended. First, figure out what time zone you’ll be in at your next destination. If your trip is taking you east, try to get up earlier and go to bed earlier than normal. Sign up for OnceHub today and experience the convenience of a scheduling tool that helps you navigate time zones effortlessly.

Tips and useful websites for your time zone strategy

When working with a distributed team, you don’t have to limit yourself to hiring locally. Instead of settling for local talent, remote workers give your company access to the best people in the world no matter where they are located. It’s not all 9-5 anymore with remote teams, with some works preferring to wake up in the early morning to get a head start before the day begins, and others starting late but working in the evening.

Some of us do our best work late at night, while others prefer to get up early and spend the late afternoons away from the desk. And while some metropolitan areas offer certain lifestyle perks, other big-city issues—like high costs-of-living—will drive potential employees away. Fried and Heinemeier Hansson offer another upside to remote work in their book on the topic. “The big transition with a distributed workforce is going from synchronous to asynchronous collaboration,” they write.

How your time zone affects your productivity– and what to do about it

IPhones and other phones have a simple World Clock option within the regular Clock app that’s easy to use. If you need to glance at your phone while talking about meeting times, and you’re away from your computer, this is a good thing to reference for everyone’s time zones. World Time Buddy has helped me arrange conference calls with professional contacts from Buenos Aires to London, and it’s the most straightforward way for communicating across time zones. It also helps you see when everyone will be awake (because it may be impossible to have a meeting while everyone has working hours).

Synchronous communication (“sync”) is when discussions are conducted in real-time, allowing for immediate responses and feedback between colleagues. This can be through phone calls, video chats or even using an instant messaging platform like Slack or Microsoft Teams. 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. Dealing with time zone discrepancies adds complexity to scheduling and communication. Navigating legal issues and visa requirements while moving between countries can be daunting.

You should avoid scheduling meetings during the times that you know everyone will not be awake, but this isn’t always possible if you work with people across multiple continents. If you do need to schedule something during off-hours, check first to make sure it is okay. Managers must align operations and reduce disruptions when working with globally distributed teams. The greatest challenge of remote work comes down to efficiently coordinating and managing a company’s inner workings. It’s crucial to tackle these issues to have a solid company culture where all employees feel acknowledged. Here are some of the most common problems that arise in this situation.

1. Take time to grab virtual coffees with your teammates one-on-one or in small groups, and schedule online game nights for the entire team.
2. The Couchsurfing team has a similar schedule to make sure everyone’s connected.
3. Don’t forget to factor in daylight savings time when it kicks in for the approximate 70 countries that use it.
4. Here are some strategies to help you achieve a healthy work-life balance when working abroad.
5. “That means that the remote person has a lot of autonomy and any problems that arise can be solved by either leaving messages on Slack/email or syncing up for a couple of hours one day.”

If you’re seeing a ton of patients or clients in a particular timezone, consider syncing the timezone in your EMR and of your computer with that of your patients. That way when you schedule patients, you can schedule them quickly in the EMR, without doing mental math. Block off when you DON’T want to schedule patients, clients, or meetings – like gym time, dinner time,  bedtime, or when you need to pick up/drop off the kids. Eastern Standard Time (EST) covers the states in the eastern part of North America and runs from Maine to Florida, while Central Standard Time (CST) includes Texas up to Montana. Mountain Standard Time (MST) spans Utah’s Rocky Mountains all the way over to Arizona, and Pacific Standard Time (PST) includes California and Nevada to Washington State.

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Even still, odds are you’ll be working with someone who’s not online at the same time as you. Staying up a bit late or getting up an hour earlier isn’t a bad tradeoff for a job you love, but how about 2 a.m.? That’s what The Year Without Pants author, Berkun, encountered when he worked at Automattic. “My team had hit the natural limits of space and time on planet earth,” Berkun says. “For us to speak at the same time, someone would have to be miserable.” However, we can’t also deny the fact that it also comes with its own set of challenges too.

Loneliness, cultural adjustments, and environmental sustainability are also considerations for digital nomads. If you’re going to work with a team that is across multiple time zones, there are several things you can do to make everyone’s schedule run as smoothly as possible. Specify which communication channel will be used across the living and working in different time zones company and ensure communication guidelines are in place. Clarify if people need to be available at certain hours or if communication will be completely asynchronous. Messaging apps like Slack can be effective for teams that need to stay updated synchronously, but email might be better for teams using an async method.

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. But simply learning how to identify key variables that affect your productivity within a certain time zone and region will allow you to create a strategy to enjoy your remote position fully. I highlight these two periods of time on the calendar and I adjust my available times to account for daylight savings – that way I only schedule meetings, etc when I’m actually able to make it.

Working across time zones requires a certain level of flexibility and compromise. Sometimes, you may need to adjust your schedule to accommodate a meeting or deadline for a colleague in a different time zone. Be open to these adjustments, as they can help create a more harmonious and productive work environment. Technology is your best friend when working remotely across time zones.

1. If you’re working with people who are located across multiple time zones, it’s important to keep communication clear and consistent so that everyone can take ownership of their tasks and workflows.
2. You can also reflect on your work satisfaction and performance, your personal and professional growth, and your work-life balance, and celebrate your progress and accomplishments.
3. Even though your whole team may be in different major cities or different countries, with geographic and time zone differences separating you—with effective async communication, none of that matters.
4. For the people who have learnt the value you can get from recording meetings however, they have become a foundational tool for them, especially when working remotely.
5. If your team is planning a meeting and proposes a time, make sure to express your opinion on a good time for it.
6. Since you will not always be able to collaborate with your teams in real-time, it is ideal that you clarify your expectations from the beginning.

Remote working isn’t automatically a freer way to work—it can be just as stressful as any 9-to-5 job. Teach your remote team to be flexible about time, though, and everyone’s lives will be easier. Plus, you’ll be able to hire the best people from anywhere around the globe. Then, if you want another easy way to know what time it is everywhere your team’s located, you can turn on the World clock in the Calendar Labs settings. At Zapier, we’ve formalized communications about what we’re working on with a Friday update post that lists our top priority for the week and what progress we made on it.

You’re off-duty, but one of your team members in another country just messaged you with a question. Before you overstep boundaries by asking colleagues in other countries if they’ll be free, look up their holiday schedules to save time. It’s my goal to avoid sending someone a meeting invite and having it pop up for them on a Saturday, or on a national holiday in the country where they live. He wound up having to take the call at 4 am Vietnam time, which was a simple 4 pm the day before in the US. This is when you have to speak up and make sure your schedule is “seen” by everyone making decisions. If your team is planning a meeting and proposes a time, make sure to express your opinion on a good time for it.