One key step to asynchronous communications in a distributed team is having less meetings.
- Avoid recurring meetings
- Don’t jump on meetings to share information
- Always start a meeting with agenda & goals
- Always end the meeting with action items & assignees
- Have a “pre-meeting triage” template
- Plan ahead to avoid rush meetings to handle exceptions
- Book calendar slots for Deep Work
Try using some of these tips. However, don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater. Face-to-face meetings is a good way to build connection between team members, to fight feelings of loneliness and isolation. In those cases, use them liberally.