Asynchronous working results in highly productive remote teams

Peter du ToitI'm the founder of FutureWork IQ where I spend my time assisting businesses to improve their climate literacy so as to understand the projected impacts from the expanding climate crisis and how to adapt their workplaces in the face of these impacts.

Since asynchronous workflows are what unlock the magic of productive remote work, learning to communicate well asynchronously is a GREAT skill to acquire!

Here are 4 components of a great asynchronous message:

Enough information to cover all follow-up questions
(Don’t let yourself be the victim of an open loop; over-communicate if necessary.)

A deadline
(When do you need a response by? How urgent is it? Which task is being blocked right now?)

Links, images, and as much supporting material as possible
(Keep all permanent task-related material [inside Trello cards for example], so whenever you talk about tasks you can link to to that which should contain all relevant information.)

A concrete need
(What do you want to get out of the communication? Approval on a task? An asset of some kind? Be extremely clear.)

(Source: The Complete Guide to Asynchronous Communication in Remote Teams )

How asynchronous is your team?