A government shutdown amounts to a suspension of many government operations until Congress acts to restore funding. The House of Representatives on Friday rejected a late bid by Speaker Kevin McCarthy to keep the government open past this weekend as more than 20 hard-right Republicans joined Democrats in voting down a stopgap funding bill. This will provide your team and the Indian team plenty of time to concentrate on project specifics that will be discussed during the weekly correspondence meeting. Starting with async standups via Slack or weekly progress reports from team leads through recorded video messages, you can get started. The goal is to use your valuable overlap time for the most high-value tasks and leave the rest for email or Slack. Even if you’re working with someone in the same country, you need to make sure that the deadline for an assignment is clear.

Developers, perhaps, have it the easiest with code comments and pull requests, but everyone should share what’s happening in their own “manager of one” domain. No matter how independently you can work, and how hard you try to stay connected, you won’t be in the flow of what everyone’s doing unless you have a team chat tool. “At TechCrunch and The Next Web, having a central point of contact is critical,” says Russell.

Messaging apps

Working in different time zones is perfectly possible, but there are a few things to consider before you apply for a project. This is of course something I considered before starting at Beelance and before going to Indonesia. Either it needs to be a project that can be done asynchronously so I can do it in my own time.

One of the main benefits of working remotely in a different time zone is that you can have more control over your schedule and work-life balance. You can choose when to work, when to take breaks, and when to enjoy your personal life, without being constrained by the office hours of your team. You can also take advantage of the time difference to work on tasks that require more focus and creativity, while your team is sleeping or busy with other things.

Use Asynchronous Communication

If you’re willing to embrace things like clear agendas, asynchronous meetings, and workflow apps, you can eliminate the bulk of the need for regular meetings — and not shed an ounce of productivity in the process. A good workflow app doesn’t just offer universal access to critical team information. It also helps shepherd your team through its activities through things such as setting deadlines and assigning responsibilities. It also provides a central, organized space where your team can upload shared documentation from various third-party applications. Having to work in different time zones requires communication to be extra precise.

• Here how you can oversee different employee’s time zones in a remote environment.
• Use tools like Slack, Microsoft Teams, Trello, or Notion to keep everyone connected, organized, and updated on the latest project developments.
• Employees can give each response the time and attention it deserves when they take a break to check their messages.
• It’s a great way to share time off and any important dates with the whole group without revealing your entire personal calendar.
• Time zone coverage is just something that’s automatically possible with distributed teams.
• Some remote companies have completely flexible hours as long as you can adequately communicate with your colleagues and get the job done.

His solution was to have a coding partner, someone he’d bounce ideas off of and check in with about project progress. Work together, even if there is a time gap, and you’ll find that the old adage “two are better than one” is still true. Sometimes you need someone to hold you accountable or working remotely in a different time zone just to work alongside you. Jeff Atwood found that when he started Stack Overflow programming on his own turned into a lonely job. Here are some popular ways to use Slack with app automation tool Zapier to automatically share activity in your channels so everyone knows what’s going on.

Tips and useful websites for your time zone strategy

This way, everyone can easily see when others are on a national holiday, busy, or free for a chat. You can also use this information to find overlapping hours to schedule group calls or meetings with all your team members when you need to. It is not always possible to organize conference calls at convenient times.

Visitor centers, campgrounds, research facilities and museums could be closed for the duration of a shutdown. Depending on how long the shutdown persists, this could create interruptions during the Indigenous People’s/Columbus Day three-day weekend for many. A representative for the Capital Area Food Bank in Washington told NPR the organization is making preparations for as many as 100,000 federal workers who could need food assistance if the government shuts down. McCarthy announced Saturday morning he would try to push the 45-day funding bill through the House with Democratic help — a move that could keep government open but would put his speakership at risk.