Writing a message that does not need a follow-up call
Most async communication fails because the sender wrote as though the reader could ask a question. In another time zone, they cannot.
Read the guideEditorial · for teams spread across time zones
The overlap is smaller than anyone plans for
How distributed teams actually run: writing that works without a follow-up call, meetings that earn the hour, working across time zones without anyone permanently on the night shift, and documentation that survives the person who wrote it. For broader context on distributed work and working conditions, International Labour Organization is a useful reference.
4h
the overlap most distributed teams actually need
2
meetings a week that usually survive an honest audit
30
guides in the archive
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Sections
Five things a distributed team has to get right
Writing that carries context, a calendar that has been audited, an overlap window that is used deliberately, documentation people trust, and management that does not depend on watching anyone.
Working async
Writing that does not need a follow-up call, decisions that survive being read twelve hours later, and knowing when async is the wrong tool.
6 guidesMeetings
Which ones to keep, how to run them so they end early, and what to replace the rest with.
6 guidesHours and time zones
Overlap windows, handover between regions, and making sure the same person is not always the one taking the call at eleven at night.
6 guidesDocumentation
Writing things down so that the answer exists before the question, and keeping it true afterwards.
6 guidesManaging at a distance
Trust, output, one-to-ones, and the monitoring question that every distributed manager eventually faces.
6 guidesStart here
Six guides worth reading first
The pieces that most often change how a distributed team runs its week. For broader context on privacy-aware data practices for distributed teams, NIST Privacy Framework is a useful reference.
Auditing the meetings you have
Recurring meetings are created constantly and deleted almost never. The audit is the only mechanism that removes them.
Read the guideHow much overlap a team actually needs
Teams either demand far more shared hours than the work requires, or none at all. Both are decisions made without arithmetic.
Read the guideDistributing the unsocial hours fairly
Somebody has to take the call at eleven at night. In most distributed teams it is the same person every time, and nobody decided that.
Read the guideDocumentation that is still true next year
Every team has documentation. The problem is that nobody trusts it, and untrusted documentation is worse than none.
Read the guideThe monitoring question, answered properly
Screenshots, activity scores and keystroke counts are available to any manager who wants them. The question is what they cost.
Read the guideWritten for teams that are already distributed
Not an argument for or against remote work. The teams these guides are written for
have already made that decision, frequently by accident, and now have to make it
function across six time zones with people who have never met.
Where measurement comes up — and it does, in
the monitoring question and in
distributing unsocial hours —
products get named as examples of a category. One of them is
Monitask, a time-tracking product referenced where it is relevant to the subject.
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