Asynchronous work is a phrase being tossed around more and more nowadays. As the nature of work has endured a massive change amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, with most white-collar workplaces shifting to some form of a remote work setup, new concepts — never before considered by many sectors and industries — are being leveraged in the name of efficiency.

While many firms focus on optimizing the way their employees synchronously work remotely, the smartest businesses out there are understanding the positive impact asynchronous frameworks and systems can have on their bottom line.

What is asynchronous work?

Asynchronous work, by definition, is work that can be done independent of time. Asynchronous work often results in colleagues, peers, or partners collaborating on some type of work product but not at the same time. Asynchronous work relies on crystal-clear communication between parties to accomplish a task in an efficient manner with the end result understood by all involved.

Efficiency is gained by asynchronous work through added ability to focus and, of course, clear communication. Often, asynchronous work is managed on some type of digital platform but asynchronous work can occur regardless of environment.

How is asynchronous work different than synchronous work?

Asynchronous work is done without time constraints whereas synchronous work requires colleagues, peers, and partners to be working at the same time. Truth be told, asynchronous work can be performed independent of time. This means, regardless of location, timezone, or personal schedule, two colleagues can accomplish work asynchronously.

Synchronous work requires parties to be spending time together, whether in-person in a conference room, on a video or phone call, or tied to some other time constraint.

What are some types of asynchronous work?

Teams or individuals can brainstorm, strategize, and drive actual production through asynchronous means. Development teams can run their standups asynchronously. Status check-ins and feedback loops can be run asynchronously. There is almost no limit to the types of work that can be performed asynchronously.

But, there are three types of work all those efforts fall into that make up the big-picture asynchronous work framework.

Asynchronous communication

Asynchronous communication is any type of communication performed independent of time. Types of asynchronous communication include email, chat, and text. Heck, asynchronous communication can even be achieved with snail mail and on the back of the napkin.

Asynchronous collaboration

Asynchronous collaboration typically involves some sort of a project management or collaboration platform and enables colleagues, peers, and partners to contribute text or video dialog surrounding a task or project. Asynchronous collaboration can also occur in a shared document.

Asynchronous meetings

The newest form of asynchronous work, asynchronous meetings take the place of the meeting as we’ve known it by offering colleagues, peers, and partners a way to achieve the outcome of a meeting but without the strict constraints of time. Asynchronous meetings are more digestible and attainable to complete than asynchronous project management and collaboration. Asynchronous meetings offer knowledge workers the ability to meet on topics of all sizes and urgencies but enables them to make their meeting contributions according to their own schedule.

Like most asynchronous work, asynchronous meetings provide those involved with the ability to focus on deep and priority work without the constant distractions and time commitments required with synchronous work.

The future of asynchronous work

At Asynchly, we truly believe the future of asynchronous work is bright. We’ve only hit the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the way asynchronous work is performed. While synchronous work is always going to be required on some level, we’re excited to be part of the movement tipping the scales in a direction that makes asynchronous work the norm.

Asynhly is the first platform built exclusively for asynchronous meetings

As a leading asynchronous meeting platform, the team at Asynchly couldn’t be more excited to see the world adopt asynchronous meetings as a way to enhance their communication and enable workers to spend less time talking about work and more time actually doing it.

We believe asynchronous meetings will free up the knowledge workers’ calendar and enable them to dive deeper into their work with more focus than they’ve ever been allowed and that this will lead to a more engaged, grateful, and happy workforce. And, for leaders, the focus on effective communication, clear objectives, understood deliverables, and increased production will lead towards more opportunities and an enhanced bottom line.

Learn more about the benefits of asynchronous meetings and what an asynchronous meeting platform is.

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