The Pros and Cons of Living in Different Time Zones as a Remote Worker

You can also effectively measure time spent on tasks allocated to Trello cards with the TimeCamp + Trello Power-Up to increase your productivity. The great thing is that your group doesn’t have to be around at the same time as you. In this situation, you can offer to adjust your schedule once in a while to give them a break. Along with this, a simple “thank you” when a colleague accommodates inconvenient schedules goes a long way. This can create half-year mismatches in local time compared to nearby provinces. Often, while living overseas I would receive calls and messages from customers during the night because they were simply unaware I was asleep.

Schedule meetings and calls in advance at mutually agreeable times

• In fact, remote workers are generally more productive than their in-office counterparts.
• There are plenty of tools out there that are designed for collaboration, time tracking, and communication.
• This means maintaining regular and effective communication, collaboration, feedback, and recognition with your work-related contacts, and building trust and rapport with them.
• If you want to interact and work with the whole world, there is pretty much no better time zone than those of Central European Time and Central African Time.

Oh, ye who think a one-hour time conversion is simpler than an eight-hour one. The shorter the time change, the more likely I am to screw it up. My brain likes to convert the wrong direction when I’m dealing with just an hour or two. That smartphone in your pocket is good for so much more than Candy Crush, selfies, and Instagram.

• To stay ahead, keep an eye on when daylight savings time begins and ends in countries that are relevant to your operations.
• This can make it challenging to schedule meetings and collaborate on projects.
• This could mean, for example, that you work each day between 6am-2pm, or 1pm-9pm, in order to overlap with the start or end of your home country’s business day.
• Maintaining open lines of communication and a positive attitude can go a long way in building strong relationships with your colleagues.
• When you can’t just have a quick chat over the coffee pot, it’s important that communication is clear and concise and empathetic.

Part of remaining close to loved ones is knowing how to effectively handle time zone differences. In this guide, you’ll find information about Canada’s time zones, share tips for scheduling, and explain how to avoid common mistakes. Canada’s vast geography presents unique challenges in time zone management. With six primary time zones and daylight saving time variations, understanding these differences is crucial for daily life, scheduling, and remote work in the country. Another essential strategy to maintain a healthy work-life balance when working in a different time zone is to stay connected with your colleagues, clients, managers, and support network. This means maintaining regular and effective communication, collaboration, feedback, and recognition with your work-related contacts, and building trust and rapport with them.

One client in India was 12 hours ahead and another in Australia was 15 hours ahead. With these tips in my back pocket, I hope there will be many, many more time zone adventures. But there was a really bright light with me being in Berlin and the client being stateside. I could edit all day and send the edits back to the client in my afternoon, just as they got back up and were starting to write again. To maintain my moniker of a part-time world traveler, I spent winter 2016 in Europe, living in Berlin for all of November.

Over the years, though, I’ve developed a few tips and tricks that have helped me navigate the complexities of working across different time zones. And today, I’m excited to share these tips with you, and I hope this will help you succeed in facing this popular concern among aspiring remote workers and digital nomads. One of the most significant advantages of remote work in a different time zone is the ability to create a conducive work-life balance. By managing your schedule, you can allocate time for personal activities, family, and wellness. For example, if your employer operates on standard business hours in a different time zone, you can choose to begin work earlier or later based on your preferences.

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Eastern Standard Time (EST) covers the states in the eastern part of North America and runs from Maine to Florida, while Central Standard Time (CST) includes Texas up to Montana. Mountain Standard Time (MST) spans Utah’s Rocky Mountains all the way over to Arizona, and Pacific Standard Time (PST) includes California and Nevada to Washington State. 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. Asynchronous communication (“async”) is when information is sent at separate times with a delay in between.

Limited Access to Local Resources

You have to adapt to working conditions as well as collaborate with colleagues from different time zones. Simple measures will help set up a workflow and allow you to quickly establish contact with all employees without wasting time and money. Of course, this form of work also has disadvantages, such as the uncomfortable work schedule and breaking rest time. In the implementation of a remote form of work, other problems practically do not arise in the framework of office work. This is due to the individual model construction of online cooperation. To work across time zones, you need to take into account the main nuances given above, think over workflow in advance, quickly adapt and solve problems.

Nomadlist is a great website for digital nomads to track these variables. Working in a different time zone can enhance productivity, depending on personal work habits. If you are a night owl, working during off-peak hours can help minimize distractions, leading to more focused and efficient work. Conversely, if you are an early riser, aligning your work hours with those of your employer may allow you to tackle tasks without interruption before the team’s workday begins. As remote work becomes increasingly prevalent, many professionals find themselves living in different time zones from their employers or colleagues. This article delves into the pros and cons of this scenario, helping you understand how it can impact your work-life balance, communication, and overall productivity.

Use Communication Tools Wisely

If you’re working remotely, you may consider renting a desk at a co-working space. That way, you’ll have company and other people to talk to while the rest of your colleagues are asleep. While I was living in Europe and working for an Australian employer, I established a fairly solid routine that used the best of both worlds. 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.

We’re here to help you learn how to navigate the various time zones and cultural differences that you’ll encounter as a digital nomad, remote worker or entrepreneur. Utilize technology tools designed to facilitate remote collaboration and scheduling. Tools like scheduling applications and project management platforms can streamline communication and ensure everyone is on the same page. Additionally, project management software can help manage tasks and deadlines effectively, notwithstanding different time zones.

Synch vs. Async: How to Have More Productive (And More Pleasant) Communication

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. To work more efficiently with distributed teams, you need to treat your team like they are all working together in one office building.

An inside look at the meeting ground rules used internally by Fellow.app, the top-rated meeting productivity software company. Caribbean countries are in a similar time zone as well to most of the Americas. This is a time that allows you to focus on thinking and coming up with creative solutions that can benefit your business core instead of burning out on endless Zoom calls. Collaborating with colleagues from various parts of the world can also expose you to diverse perspectives and innovative ideas. The cross-cultural interactions foster creative problem-solving and enrich team discussions, allowing you to leverage different insights that can enhance project outcomes.

This prevents back-and-forth confusion that can cause delays, especially if your colleague is in a different time zone and won’t see your message for hours. Technology is your best friend when it comes to bridging time zones. There are plenty of tools out there that are designed for collaboration, time tracking, and communication. Leveraging these technologies makes working with colleagues in different time zones a breeze. Beyond the logistics of moving to Canada, adapting to the local lifestyle can be another challenge. Exploring a new city’s nightlife or daytime attractions may clash with a traditional 9-to-5 schedule from your home base.

Well, the studies show that there’s a link between time zones and employee productivity. When working with a remote team, it’s important to rotate the suffering. It’s likely that someone on the team will be inconvenienced by the time that a meeting is scheduled.

They follow a division along lines of longitude, aligning with standard time offsets from UTC. Most regions “spring forward” and “fall back” for daylight saving time, but some (like Saskatchewan) don’t observe these changes. This creates a 4.5-hour difference from coast to coast, including the half-hour offset in Newfoundland. It’s even harder if your job requires real-time communication across the country. If you’ve got family members on opposite coasts, make sure you’re organized so that no one is woken up in the early hours of the morning by an unexpected phone call. If you still need to work during normal Australian business hours each day, living in Europe or Africa therefore isn’t so practical in the long term!

But the study also observed that not all workers “time-shift” equally. Individual characteristics like gender and cultural context may lead to disparities in productivity and engagement. For example, women are less likely to communicate outside of business hours living and working in different time zones than men are, possibly because of the added responsibility that many women assume in home life. Employees based in jurisdictions with stricter limits on working hours are also less likely to communicate outside of working hours. And if a firm’s management places a premium on synchronous forms of communication, these differences could lead to disparities in pay and career advancement emerging over time.