The Benefits of Asynchronous Communication in the Workplace

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In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, we’ve seen a massive shift toward remote work. Consequently, questions are being asked about the effectiveness of real-time communication. Real-time communication can take up a lot of time which could be better employed elsewhere. Could making the switch to asynchronous communication in the workplace free up more time for us to devote to meaningful work? How much more productive do you imagine you could be if you were left to focus on your work without being constantly interrupted by Slack messages, or being asked to hop on a conference call?

In the rest of this article, we’ll look at the benefits of asynchronous communication and discuss whether it could be part of the solution to the problem of workplace inefficiency. Read our post on asynchronous work for more on the upsides of this type of work.

Before we cover the benefits of asynchronous communication, let’s define it.

What is Asynchronous Communication?

Asynchronous communication is any form of communication that does not need an immediate response. Email is the most classic example of this, but product management tools like Trello and Notion use it too. People can respond to messages when they choose.

Remote teams, freelancers, and social media users all rely on asynchronous communication. The ability to respond at your own pace is what distinguishes it from synchronous communication. Read more about how Trello can boost productivity.

You might be wondering what synchronous communication is and the divide between the two. Let’s find out.

What is Synchronous Communication?

Synchronous communication is any form of communication that happens in real-time. For example, a face-to-face conversation with someone else. There is no delay while you wait for a response, it’s immediate. Video chats, phone calls, and instant messages are all forms of synchronous communication.

The Divide Between Synchronous and Asynchronous Communication

The divide between synchronous and asynchronous communication is not sharply defined. As with nearly everything else in life, the line becomes blurred. Some forms of communication that naturally align with asynchronous communication can be co-opted for synchronous communication.

Let’s take email as an example. Are you expected to respond to work emails immediately, even outside of working hours? That is no longer asynchronous communication, it is synchronous because your boss doesn’t expect a delay in your response.

On the other hand, if you have a friend who will wait for you to respond to a text message, a usually synchronous form of communication becomes asynchronous.

It’s time to talk about the advantages of asynchronous communication.

How Can Asynchronous Communication Benefit Us?

Here are some of the chief benefits of relying on asynchronous communication.

You Can Schedule Your Work Around Times When You’re at Your Most Productive

Nine to five jobs suit about half of the population — people whose productivity levels peak during the traditional workday.

The rest of us must adapt. Lots of people’s productivity peaks either before the workday begins or after it ends. One way to allow people like this to thrive is to introduce asynchronous communication.

You Can Respond at Your Own Pace

It’s true that some of us come up with our best ideas when we’re on the spot and under pressure. Others have more trouble with that though. Asynchronous communication relieves the pressure of being put on the spot and gives people time to consider and come up with a more creative response.    

It Allows You to Devote More Time to Purpose-Filled, Meaningful Work

Typically, when companies embrace asynchronous communication employees spend more time engaged in meaningful high-value tasks and work. While we must not forget the importance of collaboration and working together, we should also remember that spending more time talking about the work than doing it accomplishes very little.

It Ends the Cycle of Shallow Work

Are you often interrupted by ‘urgent’ messages when you’ve just settled into the flow of work? How often does it turn out not to be urgent at all? Do you find that once you’ve been interrupted it’s harder to sink back into the flow state and get your work done?

There is another term for these small but frequent distractions. Shallow work refers to all those surface-level, low-value, low-priority tasks that take up a disproportionate amount of your time. They disrupt your workflow and hamper productivity.

Asynchronous communication lets you focus on your work and deal with your messages later.

It’s Excellent for Hybrid Work  

Asynchronous work helps keep those working from home on the same level as those working in an office, and keeps everyone on the same page. Paper trails ensure remote workers are kept up to speed and don’t miss anything essential.

This makes it possible to work with people who live in different countries and in different time zones, so you can collaborate with others across the globe and bring together a wealth of experience and knowledge.

It Helps you Concentrate More

Imagine you’re halfway through a task and get interrupted by a conference call. You will likely be more focused on the task you were doing before the conference call began than on what the call is about. This can obviously have a detrimental effect on your productivity.

Asynchronous communication allows you to chat between tasks, rather than during them, so you’ll be able to concentrate more fully on the conversation in front of you rather than being preoccupied with unfinished tasks.

It Makes Room for People

We don’t exist in a bubble. Real life continues alongside our careers, and our jobs and careers are but a single aspect of it. Asynchronous communication allows you some wiggle room to accommodate real life when something happens.

You might have been given some bad news, and would instead prefer to work remotely and not face the in-office chat that day. Asynchronous work and communication allow you to do this, provided you clear it with whoever you need to.

Asynchronous work and communication, then, let us be people with real lives and not just beings who act like robots.

Before we share some tips on finding the right balance between asynchronous and synchronous communication for you and your team, we’ll touch upon what happens when synchronous communication encounters the always-on culture so prevalent in today’s world.  

When Synchronous Communication Clashes with Our Always-On Culture

What happens when the frequently artificial sense of urgency overwhelms our nervous systems? Burnout, which often leads to subsequent depression. Read our post on burnout and fatigue for more info.

Synchronous communication keeps us on our toes all say. You never know when you’ll need to switch tasks, forget the task you’re working on, go somewhere else, and do something entirely unrelated.

After a period of time, we start to anticipate and expect these sorts of interruptions and have trouble maintaining a state of flow and engaging in deep work because of it, even if we’re not interrupted. This damages our productivity, which in turn can impact our self-esteem.

We could lose confidence in our ability to do the job and see our productivity decrease further.

It’s important to remember that work, effectiveness, and efficiency aren’t the only things damaged by our always-on culture and synchronous communication. It can also affect other aspects of our lives such as our relationships and hobbies.

We must accept that some degree of synchronous communication will always be necessary. So, how do we find a good balance between that and asynchronous to ensure we don’t compromise our productivity and effectiveness overmuch?

Let’s find out.

Finding a Happy Medium Between Synchronous and Asynchronous Communication

As intermated above, synchronous communication has its place in modern life, even though asynchronous communication has many advantages. But how do find the perfect balance, and stay connected without falling prey to our always-on culture?

Here are our top tips.

• Put faith in remote work – Moving from in-office, on-site work to remote, off-site work strikes fear into the hearts of many. There is evidence that too much close monitoring can hurt morale and employees thrive when given a little more freedom. You can use asynchronous communication to do just that.
• Redefine urgency – Communication delays are an integral part of asynchronous communication and work. Adopting it may lead you to question how many daily emails and messages you receive are truly urgent. Sometimes sharing a non-urgent memo does the job as well — if not better — than hitting people with a slew of urgent emails and instant messages.
• Create and uphold a sense of community – Asynchronous work married to remote work can make you more susceptible to loneliness. Thus, it’s vital that maintain a degree of sociability in the work environment to boost job satisfaction. You can do this by using real-time synchronous communication to brainstorm new ideas as a team. You could also schedule a reasonable number of real-time check-ins and offer to discuss sensitive issues via video chat.
• Keep Messaging to a Minimum – Whether you choose to shift completely over to using forms of asynchronous communication, everyone would benefit from having to deal with fewer notifications and messages. Try it and see if you see an uptick in productivity over time.
•  Set clear workplace boundaries – If you don’t expect your team to respond to messages when they’re not working, let them know. Include e-signatures in each email you send which clearly states working hours. If you still struggle to divorce yourself from the always-on culture, you can use website-blocking software to help you switch off from work. It’s crucial that whatever boundaries you decide on, they should apply to all in the business or company.

You can play around with these tips to find the perfect balance of these forms of communication to suit your own needs.

Wrapping Up

Now you know what both synchronous and asynchronous communication is, and the multiple upsides of the latter, you should be able to work out a good balance between the two that you can adapt to help you and your team work more efficiently and effectively.

It’s likely best to have a mix of the two, because, as touched upon here, the line between them isn’t well defined, and relying on synchronous communication alone can be massively detrimental to productivity.

Why not start experimenting today, so you can find a balance that works for you? In a more remote- work-friendly, post-pandemic world, incorporating some degree of asynchronous communication into your working practices may be just what’s needed to help your company thrive.

Do you already use asynchronous communication? Let us know what you think of it in the comments.