Let’s think back to high school and our first undergrad degrees (if you were a traditional student). Our lives were essentially ruled by school! We spent all day at classes and spent time after classes doing homework and then maybe enjoying a bit of free time in the evenings and on weekends. Most of your work was probably individual but if you did get assigned a group project it was easy enough to find time between your group members and yourself to get together, because like I said school was pretty much all you did! You all sat down together (because you went to the same school and were likely in the same physical space) and worked on the project until you got to a good stopping point, and then went your separate ways and about your lives. But what happens when you’re working with 2 teammates who lives in different time zones than you, who have families, jobs, and other life commitments and don’t have a life fully committed to school? Well, you have to learn to work asynchronously. You have to figure out how to get work done without always being able to sit down and do the work together. Here are a few things I’ve learned about working asynchronously through my time in this program.
Tip #1: Set expectations!
You know that meme about your group members being at your funeral to let you down one last time? Well that feeling of disappointment and feeling like you were the only person on the project to actually do anything usually comes from a lack of clear expectations. Are you the kind of person who wants the submit the assignment the day it gets posted to Canvas? Then I would advise against being in a group with people who prefer to take their time and have no anxiety about turning in the assignment at 11:58PM the night it’s due. But if you don’t have a choice in group, make your expectations clear. And be reasonable! Maybe the other people in your group can’t get everything done in a day, but both sides can meet in the middle and decide that all assignments will be turned in a day before the due date. Setting the expectation that this is what you want avoids frustration on your side waiting for someone to do something they were never going to do. It also avoids frustration from the other party feeling like they’re being babysat as a full grown adult.
Tip #2: Communicate!
Communication is truly the foundation of every relationship: Wether that be with your spouse or with your group members, especially when that relationship is with people you can’t always talk to face to face. As I said above, you have to set expectations, but you can only do that if you’re effectively communicating. Avoid being passive aggressive or overly aggressive in general. No one wants to be talked to like they’re stupid but no one wants to be yelled at either. If you’re concerned about the amount of time something is taking, ask when you can expect a deliverable or how you can help to get that work done sooner. If you’re upset with the quality of work someone turned in, offer advice on how to improve it. If you find yourself feeling like you’re being talked down to, or feeling like your group member is mad at you in some way try to find a time to voice chat. Writing in discord and sending emails can tend to suck all the nuance out of conversation which can lead to misread tone and messages. Even in groups I’ve been a part of that worked 90% asynchronously we were able to find an hour every one or two weeks to sit down and actually talk to each other.
Tip #3 (if you’re developing software): Use a version control system!
My final tip is specifically for software developers but it’s a big one. Use! A! Version! Control! System! One of the most important skills I have learned while working in a software development internship is effective use of a version control system like Github or Bitbucket. It can be hard to conceptualize at first that multiple people can be working on the same code at different times and have it not create issues, but once you get the hang of using a version control system you will be amazed at what a difference it makes in asynchronous development work. It gives you the ability to see what code is already out there, see what your fellow group members are working on, and even gives you a safe space to store your code in case your computer goes kaput for some reason.
These are some of the tips I have for working asynchronously, but effectively. And I’m currently putting them to use today! In the Job Tracker group we have 3 people who live in 3 different time zones, and have different life commitments but we’re able to make it work. We communicate on discord about when we’re going to have our pieces of the project done, we get on voice calls to suss out the finer details, and we use Github to track all our code. We have had a successful term using these tips and I hope you will too!
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