How To Work Effectively Across Different Time Zone

You may find it difficult working with people from different countries because they may not all be working at the same time. It may be time to start work in your country and everyone may still be asleep in your employers country or someone in another country may be starting work when you are ending yours. The trick is to organize communication and deadlines so that the time difference does not prevent your work from processing. 

1. Understand everyone’s different time zones

The first step is to know the time zone of where the people you are working with are located and their normal working hours. This prevents you from sending messages, scheduling meetings and submitting reports when the person is offline or at an inconvenient time. Remember that time zones  occur during the year but some countries observe the day-light saving time while some do not. 

2. Find a suitable period for communication

Even though every where in different countries have different working hours. There is usually a period where they overlap. This period is the best time for  discussions and meetings that require everyone’s participation. Do not try to make every schedule identical, just identify the overlapping time and use it for tasks that genuinely require interaction. 

3. Learn how to work asynchronously

Asynchronous work means work that people do not have to respond to at the same time. This is very important across different time zone. Instead of waiting for them to respond before you continue. You can just provide the information you need for them to respond when their work begins and continue your work. You can explain everything that needs to be checked and what you have done and wait for their response or verification. This allows the person to deal with tasks without spending too much time asking questions. 

4. Be very specific about deadlines

Confusion in time zones can easily cause missed deadlines. Instead of telling them to just submit in the afternoon for instance. Give a specific date ,time and time zone. This is very important when working with international employers because the terms morning, afternoon and evening can be misinterpreted. 

5. Avoid unnecessary meetings

Working with someone that uses a different time zone can be difficult when scheduling meetings because one time may not be convenient for the other. Before scheduling any meeting check if there is any need for a meeting and if it can just be handled via email. Meetings should only be used when discussions, collaborations and Immediate decision making is essential and genuinely necessary. 

6. Create proper hand offs

One advantage of having different time zones is that work can continue almost all around the clock. If you complete any project and give instructions for them to continue when they are ready. A hand off should explain 

• What you completed 

• What needs to be done 

• Any problems you encountered 

• What the next person should do

• When the next stage needs to be completed 

This helps preventing the next individual from wasting their time trying to understand and interpret what happened before they came online.

7. Document important decisions

Do not only rely on conversations and meetings. Any questions important decisions , instructions, deadlines and changes should be noted and accessible to all relevant people. This is very important when someone could not attend a meeting because it was scheduled outside their working hours. They should be able to read what they discussed, know what they need to do and make any adjustments requiring another meeting. 

8. Respect people’s working boundaries

Working across different time zones gives the impression that every employee should always be available and that is not sustainable. You should make reasonable working hours and communicate when people are usually available. If someone sends an email when you are offline, they should know you can only respond during your working hours. You should also not expect your colleagues to respond immediately just because you are working at the moment. 

9. Use calendars and time zone tools

Sharing calendars can also make working international scheduling easier. When you want to arrange a meeting check if the time aligns with that of each participants location. You can use a world clock application or scheduling tools. To avoid manually calculating the time difference. 

10. Build a predictable routine:

Make your routine predictable to make it easier for international colleagues to work with you. Have regular times for checking messages, attending international meetings, completing work, sending project updates and reviewing tasks. This reduces confusion and makes collaborative easier and efficient. 

Conclusion 

Working across different time zones is about coordination, communication and flexibility. You don’t necessarily need everyone to work simultaneously, and just clear your deadlines, documents well, fix appropriate meeting times and respect everyone working time. When you do this different time zones can actually be to your own advantage because you can continue working instead of stopping when ones work day has ended..