What is Async Work?

Async work is collaborating without requiring people to be online at the same time.

How does async work work?

You write things down instead of calling a meeting. Decisions, context, and status live in documents and threads anyone can read later. Response time gets measured in hours, not seconds. Meetings become the exception, saved for debate and relationship building.

Why does async work matter?

It lets you hire anywhere, and it protects focus. A team spread across six time zones cannot run on real-time interruption. Async also forces clearer thinking: writing a decision down exposes the gaps a hallway conversation hides.

Where did async work come from?

Open-source projects ran this way for decades out of necessity, because contributors were scattered and unpaid. GitLab codified it for companies in its public handbook, which treats writing as the default and meetings as the fallback. The 2020 shift to remote work pushed the practice mainstream.

How do you do async work well?

Write the full context, not a ping. Set explicit response-time expectations, so silence does not read as neglect. Record the decision, not just the discussion. Watch for written debate that never closes, which is analysis paralysis with better formatting. And keep a few real-time rituals, because fully async teams drift apart.

Bottom line: Async work trades speed of response for depth of thought, and it only works if you write things down.

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