To set up a Teams meeting in another time zone, just select the correct time zone when creating the meeting. Teams will automatically adjust the time for each participant, so they see it in their own local time. Rather than working the same number of hours consecutively, split your shift into two.
If you travel the world frequently, knowing which a time zone you’re in relative to GMT is crucial—and it’s also important if you’re working with a distributed team. Knowing the difference between Eastern, Central, Mountain, and Pacific time alone isn’t enough anymore. You’ll need to know which times of the day your colleague in London will be awake, and the times you’re most likely to get support tickets from your Australian customers. It’s impossible to overstate how crucial Slack—a team chat app that makes it easy to search through all of your team’s messages—is to remote teams. It’s the one app that comes up in nearly every discussion of how to make remote teams work. Even reporters from The New York Times have found that Slack helps them stay connected to their newsroom while away on assignments.
Time Zone Scheduler and Planning
But when working with a distributed team, communicating takes more effort. The final strategy to maintain a healthy work-life balance when working in a different time zone is to be mindful of your own needs, preferences, and goals. This means paying attention to your physical, mental, and emotional health, and taking care of yourself accordingly. For example, you can monitor your sleep quality and quantity, your nutrition and hydration, your exercise and movement, and your mood and stress levels, and make any necessary changes or improvements. You can also reflect on your work satisfaction and performance, your personal and professional growth, and your work-life balance, and celebrate your progress and accomplishments. One of the most overlooked strategies to maintain a healthy work-life balance when working in a different time zone is to take regular breaks.
- Keep in mind that World Clock will show only your current time, and the current time in the other locations, too.
- If there are different time zones represented within the discussion, try to be as precise as possible regarding times and dates.
- When working remotely and over multiple timezones, you will encounter more and more people from diverse cultural backgrounds.
- For example, you can take a short walk, meditate, read, listen to music, or do any other activity that helps you unwind and de-stress.
- Don’t forget, therefore, to plan ahead, set clear expectations, leverage technology, be flexible, compromise, use asynchronous communication, and prioritize self-care.
- To work more efficiently with distributed teams, you need to treat your team like they are all working together in one office building.
The Role of Soft Skills in IT Support Success
In this guide, see the tips that worked for me, as well as how you can excel when working with clients, vendors or colleagues in many time zones. The Colombia expat hub of Medellin is perfectly aligned with Eastern Standard Time most of the year, save for daylight savings time when it’s one hour behind. You can use an online tool like TimeAndDate.com to determine the time zone your colleague is in. You can also try asking them what times they are available during, and when their day starts/ends so you know how much overlap there will be with yours. There is a false perception that remote workers are lazy, taking every opportunity to slack off because nobody is watching. In fact, remote workers are generally more productive than their in-office counterparts.
Working across time zones can yield benefits for both employees and employers, from improving work-life balance to widening the talent pool for new hires. In order to eliminate error or miscalculation of time zones, I use multiple time zones in Google calendar. To be successful at my job, as well as pave the way for my future of international business, I became an expert in working across multiple time zones. Indonesia and Bali have a time zone that is even later than the Southeast Asian one.
- In this case, you have more runway in choosing from a wider range of timezone options.
- Google Calendar settings will also ask if you want to ‘Ask to update my primary time zone to current location,’ and you can choose to check this box, or not.
- A shared team calendar might be helpful as everyone can see each other’s availability.
- One thing to keep in mind about how to overcome time zone differences is to be transparent about where you’re located (mentioned above), but also, your working hours.
For seamless communication, Slack offers time zone settings to display local times for team members, and Zoom provides scheduling options that automatically adjust for participants’ time zones. Utilizing these tools can significantly enhance productivity and coordination in remote teams. Another key strategy to maintain a healthy work-life balance when working in a different time zone is to plan ahead. This means anticipating the potential challenges and opportunities that may arise from working across multiple time zones, and preparing accordingly. For example, you can use online tools or apps to track the time zones of your team members, clients, or stakeholders, and schedule meetings or calls at mutually convenient times. You can also create a weekly or monthly calendar to organize your tasks, deadlines, and goals, and share it with your relevant contacts.
Ready To Master Remote Work Across Different Time Zones?
A digital nomad is a person who uses digital technology to work remotely and live a location-independent lifestyle. Digital nomads are not tied to a specific physical location, and they often travel and work from various places around the world. Their work is typically done online, which allows them to have the flexibility to choose where and when they work. Relationships foster trust, increase collaboration and boost productivity in any work environment. Having a social relationship with colleagues does more than just combat isolation.
The PopSci team’s holiday gift recommendations mean you’ll never need to buy another last-minute gift card. For instance, if one team member sends a question at the end of their workday, they might not receive a reply until the next morning, which can hinder crucial decisions and slow down workflows. Your availability can be emailed to meeting attendees once you’ve made your preferences. By clicking on a time, they can reserve it, and Calendar will add it to your calendar and email the meeting attendees. You are responsible for sharing any changes in your schedule, whether you are switching shifts or clocking out early.
With employees spread across more than 15 countries, Buffer understands the need to adapt its communication and collaboration methods to accommodate a diverse workforce. The company’s emphasis on transparency and flexibility contributes to a cohesive work environment, despite geographical distances. 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.
In this article, you will learn some of the benefits and challenges of working remotely in a different time zone, and some tips on how to make it work for you and your team. “Any remote worker knows living and working in different time zones you have to be flexible, so I feel time zone differences don’t impact your remote work life too much,” says Zapier’s Smith. “I’d quite happily sacrifice staying a little later or getting up a little earlier to avoid the stresses of a morning commute in rush hour traffic.”
In this day and age with remote work, it’s less clear than ever before as to where someone is physically located and what the current time is for them. What better way to travel and work than with the people who understand your lifestyle than to work with us at Support Adventure?! As a remote MSP staffing company, we hire talented people from around the world and allow them to work from anywhere. We are an expat-run and fully remote company with people who have a passion for experiencing life abroad.
You need to coordinate and collaborate with your team, to avoid duplication, confusion, or gaps in the work. You also need to use the right tools and platforms, to share information, documents, and ideas, and to facilitate teamwork and problem-solving. Teams in traditional office settings sometimes measure productivity by how long each team member spends at their desk. But remote teams can fall into the “I’m online, so I’m being productive” trap, too.