Tips for Managing Time Zones in Offshoring

Here’s a pro tip learned the hard way. When coordinating meetings across time zones, I offer availability in the counterparty's time zone. It isn't just courteous—it's smart business. Imagine you're in New York with your client in London. By converting your availability to GMT, you're subtly saying, "I respect your time." It eliminates the mental gymnastics of time conversion and reduces the risk of scheduling errors. Plus, it sets a collaborative tone, showing you're attuned to the details that make cross-border partnerships work. These small gestures can make a big impact. Relationships are about respecting individual nuances, including the simple yet crucial matter of what time it is.

Every founder wants team communication to feel effortless. (3 easy steps to achieve that) When your team is spread across time zones and cultures, smooth communication has to be designed. Because: Timezone gaps = disturbing personal time. People can’t just “pop by” for clarification. Small questions become blockers. The good news? It is doable —it just takes focus and the right approach. 3 things to set up: Set core working hours ↳ Create a 2–4 hour window of overlap daily. ↳ This keeps collaboration easy without forcing availability. Ensure transparency ↳ Use tools like Slack, Notion, or ClickUp. ↳ Everyone should know:  ‣ What’s been done.  ‣ What’s in motion.  ‣ What’s blocked. Check in on more than just work ↳ Weekly pulse checks go a long way. ↳ Ask how they’re doing, not just what they’re doing. Use complete messages ↳ Predict questions before they’re asked. ↳ Add all info—context, links, files—in one thread. Default to async first ↳ Use Loom or Slack voice notes for updates. ↳ Save live calls for decisions, not discussions. When communication works, projects move faster. Problems get solved earlier. And your team stays engaged, without burning out. What’s helped your remote team stay aligned?👇 Helpful?  ♻️Please share to help others. 🔎Follow Michael Shen for more.

🗺️ Time zones matter, so think of the world in stripes. That's just one of my top takeaways from Annie Dean’s Keynote at Running Remote. Atlassian continues to lead with their experimentation with distributed work. And we all get to benefit from their willingness to publicly share their learnings.   1. Time Zones Matter: Consider the world as if it’s divided into 6 time zones stripes. The most successful teams have a 4 hour workday overlap.  If you are early in your career, Atlassian tries to match you with a manager in the same stripe.  If more senior, you might oversee people across 3 stripes.  Innovation teams should be staffed within 2 stripes or less.   2. Team Design: Organize teams based on the skills you need for the problem you are trying to solve (not based on the building they work from). If you operate digital-first then this allows you to create the best team with the right skills (within the right time zone stripes).   3.  Loyalty vs Connection: Going into an office helps improve company loyalty and belonging, but NOT team connection (which is linked to team effectiveness). Team connection is better built via intentional gatherings.   4.  Async Audience: The audience for your writing it's not just your readers, it's also LLM models (to help AI with searching for and summarizing content later).   5.  Free Time: Ideally keep 50% of your calendar free for focus work and adhoc collaboration.   6.  "Page-Led" Meetings: Each meeting should start with a one-pager that is read silently at the beginning to ground everyone on the outcome needed and includes prompts that create a robust discussion/debate. #virtualleadership #distributedteams #hybridwork #runningremote