Communication

We work async and remote. So communication must be streamlined using the "No Hello" approach. Of course that does not mean that we are going to treat other teammates roughly. Above everything we are a team. But, to respect everyone's time and be effective, it is important to mind the way we communicate.

👎🏼 BAD

Person 1: Hello ${name}, how are you today?

Person 1 waits for the response ....

Person 1: Hey ${name}, are you there? I need to talk with you

In this example

• Person 1 did not respect the time of his teammates, demanding immediate attention.
• There is no indication of what is the subject of the conversation or how important it is.

👍🏼 GOOD

Person 1: Hello ${name}, hope you're doing well today. I'm reaching out to discuss task #1234 - Name of the Task. I have a blocker here and I think you have the necessary context to help me with this. At your earliest convenience can we connect? I'm available at these times [time, time, time].

• No question that required immediate answer.
• Polite, respectful but straightforward and effective.
• Clear subject and enough content to define priority

Schedule

Most of us - depending on contract terms - will be able to choose when and where to work from. Also, we could be in different timezones. To maintain unity regardless of those two variables and achieve a truly async workflow, there are two important steps we need to follow.

1 - Slack status

Make sure your status really conveys your reality.

• Working? Be active on slack
• In a meeting or extremely focused? Be busy on slack
• On a break or out of office? Be off on slack as well.

You can always use the custom status feature to add emojis and hence be able to convey your status.

2 - Daily Agenda

We have a specific channel where we can let our teammates know what is the timeframe we are going to work, periods where we will be out or any specific detail of that day.

Every day, your last action should be updating your agenda for the next day.

1 - Go to #daily 2 - Create a thread with the next day date: dd-mm-yyyy 3 - Within that thread, add your agenda for the next day

Examples:

• 9AM - 12PM | 12PM - 6PM
• 8AM - 4PM
• 12PM - 8PM -- I have a dentist appointment in the morning

Then, first thing in the morning, make sure that your agenda is still accurate. No need to go bananas here. If you're set to be working by 9AM and it is 9:03AM, no need to update it. But if something major happens, make sure to update that.

Work flow techniques

There are a couple of work techniques that are mandatory for the whole team. Each one of us for sure will have our own way to apply these, but make sure that the following is part of your day to day work flow.

Checkpoints

Working async sometimes brings a few challenges in alignment, estimations and expectations. Checkpoints will help us stay on track and help us as a team to keep focus on the task at hand and on the best possible result.

Every day, create a new thread in your #checkpoint channel. This is a good moment - actually one of the main points of doing this - to think about what you are going to build and especially how you are going to do it.

::: Any monkey can type words. Our work is not typing code, that is a consequence. Our work is to think how to use code to achieve our result. :::

Create a checkpoint entry and add in the task you want to achieve in that period of time.

By convention, our checkpoints' max span is 2 hours.

Let's work through an example. Say you were assigned to integrate an edit feature in the user view and on your agenda you put 8AM - 12PM | 1PM - 5PM

8AM - 10AM

• Add button to the interface
• Handle loading state
• Handle user roles and permissions

Everything went awesome during that checkpoint and you were able to complete it all. In the next one you move forward.

10AM - 12PM

• Handle edit dialog
• Handle loading and disabled state
• Work on the form validations

Then for this one you actually have some blocker and it took more time from what you predicted. No problem at all! But then, in the next, what is still pending should be there.

1PM - 3PM

• Work on the form validations
• API integration
• Granular updates

Also, make sure to include any meetings that you may need to attend during a checkpoint.

3PM - 5PM

• Daily Call
• API integrations
• Granular update

--

What this is about:

• Make sure that we are thinking through our task during the day
• Guarantee that we have clear steps to work on
• Maintain our focus level as high as possible
• Avoid distractions

What this is not about:

• Micro managing
• Working like a robot. Please take breaks 😃
• Speed things up
• Create pressure

Pomodoro

The checkpoints are, in a sense, a variation of the Pomodoro technique. If you are not aware of it, please do some quick research about it.

But here we also encourage using this to guarantee our health both physically and emotionally. Taking breaks is important. Make sure that your break is really a break. If possible, try to do something that doesn't involve a screen. That will reset your brain and mental state, keep you fresh during the day, and make sure that you will have energy to live life after work every day.

You will need to find the timeframe that works best for you. Usually people try 25-30 minute sessions. But it can be different for everybody. Test, take notes, learn about yourself. Same for the breaks. Some people think 5 minutes is too much. Find out what works best for you.

There are lots of activities you can do in these breaks. Some people stretch, meditate, pray, read something on paper, put their faces in a bowl of ice, take a cold shower, take a quick walk around the block, call a friend or a relative - well you get the idea. This is about resetting and moving forward. Here is an example:

First session: 25min - Working
First break: 5min - Stretch upper body

Second session: 25min - Working
Second break: 5min - Stretch lower body

Third session: 25min - Working
Third break: 5min - Mobility drills

Fourth session: 25min - Working
Fourth break - long break: 15min - Walk around the block

In a world of distractions, the one who has the ability to focus and trigger flow state on demand is king. Be king!