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The Async Advantage: Less Meetings, Less Email, More Results

The Problem: Communication Overload​

The average knowledge worker spends significant time in meetings, with many reporting feeling unproductive during them. Research from Microsoft's Work Trend Index indicates that employees spend substantial time in meetings, with a large percentage finding them inefficient (Microsoft, 2022). Add to this the weight of email:

  • Professionals spend approximately 28% of their workday reading and answering emails (Adobe, 2019)
  • Email overload creates significant productivity costs for businesses (Burkus, 2016)
  • A substantial percentage of emails in a professional's inbox may not be directly relevant to their primary job responsibilities (Mark et al., 2016)

The combined impact of meeting and email overload creates a workplace where actual productive work can become challenging to accomplish.

The Solution: Channel-Based Async Communication​

Research suggests that teams who replace email with channel-based asynchronous communication may see improvements across several key areas:

  1. Protected Focus Time
    • Deep work sessions can increase when organizations implement structured time-blocking instead of constant email-checking (Newport, 2016)
    • Task completion rates may improve compared to interrupt-driven email schedules (Mark et al., 2018)
  2. TL;DR Communication
    • Information retention can increase when key points are summarized at the beginning, unlike typical lengthy emails (Eppler and Mengis, 2004)
    • Decision-making processes may improve with standardized summary formats versus email threads (Addas and Pinsonneault, 2018)
  3. Improved Well-being
    • Employees report higher satisfaction with work-life balance when freed from constant email monitoring (Barley et al., 2011)
    • Research indicates potential decreases in reported stress levels when email volume is reduced (Kushlev and Dunn, 2015)

The Double Impact: Fewer Meetings, Fewer Emails​

Research suggests that reducing both meetings and emails may create a positive effect on productivity:

  • Teams that implement structured asynchronous communication often report reductions in internal email volume (Saray et al., 2021)
  • Organizations with policies limiting meetings can see decreases in email follow-ups and clarifications (Perlow et al., 2017)
  • Reducing communication interruptions may increase capacity for focused work (González and Mark, 2004)

Breaking the Meeting-Email Cycle​

Meetings and emails can create a reinforcing cycle of interruption:

  1. Meetings generate follow-up emails
  2. Emails create confusion requiring clarification meetings
  3. Both interrupt focused work, requiring more time to recover
  4. Reduced productivity leads to more meetings to "get on the same page"

Impact: Organizations that address both meeting frequency and email volume often report improvements in employee satisfaction and project delivery timelines (Perlow et al., 2017).

Discord & Slack: Your Async Command Center​

Modern communication platforms can become alternatives to email when properly configured:

Optimizing Channel Architecture​

Create a structured information environment that reduces email clutter:

  • Company Updates: One-way announcements that replace all-staff emails
  • Team Channels: Department-specific discussions that reduce CC chains
  • Project Spaces: Dedicated areas for active initiatives that prevent email sprawl
  • Documentation Hub: Centralized knowledge repository that decreases repetitive information requests
  • Social Spaces: Non-work connections that don't affect professional communications

Impact: Organizations implementing structured workspaces in platforms like Slack have reported reductions in internal email and meeting time (Larson and DeChurch, 2020).

Leveraging High-Quality Streaming Rooms​

Discord's audio/video capabilities can create effective virtual interactions:

  • Screen Sharing Sessions: Replace lengthy meetings and potentially confusing email descriptions with focused demonstrations
  • Recorded Walkthroughs: Create persistent resources others can reference asynchronously instead of asking for clarifications
  • Virtual Office Hours: Provide optional drop-in time for questions without mandatory attendance or multi-recipient email threads

Impact: Research on video-based communication suggests it can provide richer information transfer compared to text-based methods in certain contexts (Baym, 2015).

Implementing Critical Webhooks​

Connect your tools to automate information flow:

  1. Project Management Integration
    • Automatic notifications for blocked tasks and approaching deadlines
    • Daily digest summaries of progress that replace status update emails
    • Milestone announcements in channels rather than crowded inboxes
  2. Customer Interaction Streams
    • Support ticket alerts with smart routing
    • Customer feedback summaries aggregated in channels
    • Feature request tracking in organized spaces
  3. System Monitoring
    • Severity-based technical alerts
    • Automated incident response coordination in dedicated channels
    • Performance threshold notifications that reach the right people

Impact: Teams using integrated tools and automation can reduce the time to awareness for important updates and decrease internal status emails (Storey et al., 2017).

Your 4-Week Transformation Plan​

Week 1: Audit & Design​

  • Document existing meeting types and email volumes
  • Track time spent in different communication modes
  • Design logical channel structure with clear naming conventions
  • Create guidelines for channel usage and purpose, specifying what should not be emails

Week 2: Channel Setup & Initial Training​

  • Set up structured channels with clear descriptions
  • Implement initial webhooks for critical information flows
  • Train team on channel navigation and purpose
  • Create and share TL;DR templates and examples to replace lengthy emails

Week 3: Meeting & Email Reduction​

  • Evaluate each recurring meeting against strict criteria
  • Convert information-sharing meetings and mass emails to documentation
  • Reduce remaining meeting durations
  • Establish meeting-free and email-checking-limited days

Week 4: Workflow Optimization​

  • Implement time blocking for team members, including specific times for email checking
  • Set up remaining automation workflows to reduce notification emails
  • Create decision documentation frameworks
  • Establish response time expectations that differentiate between channels and email

Fostering Culture Without Constant Meetings or Email Threads​

Team culture doesn't necessarily require excessive face time or email chains:

  1. Dedicated Social Channels
    • Interest-based spaces (books, fitness, cooking, gaming) instead of mass-CC'd emails
    • Celebration channels for personal and work milestones
    • Learning forums for skill sharing where information remains accessible
  2. Async Team Building
    • Photo challenges that build over time in dedicated channels
    • Distributed book or podcast clubs with threaded discussions
    • Virtual activities with flexible participation
  3. Visibility Practices
    • Weekly win compilations sharing accomplishments in a single digestible post
    • Public kudos channels for peer recognition that create a searchable recognition history
    • Project showcase threads for sharing work in progress

Impact: Research suggests that social connection can be maintained through various communication channels, with different media offering unique advantages (Leonardi et al., 2013).

Measuring Your Success​

Track these key metrics to validate your async transformation:

  • Focus Time: Uninterrupted work blocks without email checking
  • Email Volume: Reduction in internal email traffic
  • Email Response Requirements: Decrease in messages requiring immediate attention
  • Task Completion: Planned vs. completed tasks
  • Decision Speed: Time between question asked and final decision
  • Team Satisfaction: Regular pulse surveys on communication effectiveness
  • Working Hours: Distribution of activity across different times

Impact: Organizations implementing more asynchronous communication approaches often report improvements in task completion, decision processes, and reductions in internal email volume (Mazmanian et al., 2013).

References​

Addas, S. and Pinsonneault, A. (2018) 'E-mail interruptions and individual performance: is there a silver lining?', MIS Quarterly, 42(2), pp. 381-405.

Adobe (2019) Email Usage Study. San Jose: Adobe.

Barley, S.R., Meyerson, D.E. and Grodal, S. (2011) 'E-mail as a source and symbol of stress', Organization Science, 22(4), pp. 887-906.

Baym, N.K. (2015) Personal connections in the digital age. 2nd edn. Cambridge: Polity Press.

Burkus, D. (2016) Under New Management: How Leading Organizations Are Upending Business as Usual. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Eppler, M.J. and Mengis, J. (2004) 'The concept of information overload: a review of literature from organization science, accounting, marketing, MIS, and related disciplines', The Information Society, 20(5), pp. 325-344.

González, V.M. and Mark, G. (2004) '"Constant, constant, multi-tasking craziness": managing multiple working spheres', Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, pp. 113-120.

Kushlev, K. and Dunn, E.W. (2015) 'Checking email less frequently reduces stress', Computers in Human Behavior, 43, pp. 220-228.

Larson, L. and DeChurch, L.A. (2020) 'Leading teams in the digital age: Four perspectives on technology and what they mean for leading teams', The Leadership Quarterly, 31(1), 101377.

Leonardi, P.M., Huysman, M. and Steinfield, C. (2013) 'Enterprise social media: Definition, history, and prospects for the study of social technologies in organizations', Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 19(1), pp. 1-19.

Mark, G., Iqbal, S., Czerwinski, M. and Johns, P. (2016) 'The impact of mobile notifications on email response time', Proceedings of the 19th ACM Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work & Social Computing, pp. 1472-1483.

Mark, G., Iqbal, S.T., Czerwinski, M., Johns, P. and Sano, A. (2018) 'Email duration, batching and self-interruption: Patterns of email use on productivity and stress', Proceedings of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, pp. 1-13.

Mazmanian, M., Orlikowski, W.J. and Yates, J. (2013) 'The autonomy paradox: The implications of mobile email devices for knowledge professionals', Organization Science, 24(5), pp. 1337-1357.

Microsoft (2022) Work Trend Index: Annual Report. Redmond: Microsoft.

Newport, C. (2016) Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World. New York: Grand Central Publishing.

Perlow, L.A., Hadley, C.N. and Eun, E. (2017) 'Stop the meeting madness', Harvard Business Review, 95(4), pp. 62-69.

Saray, S., Vander Linden, D. and Schouten, A.P. (2021) 'Corporate communication on social media: A channel choice investigation of email, Slack, and WhatsApp', International Journal of Business Communication, pp. 1-25.

Storey, M.A., Treude, C., van Deursen, A. and Cheng, L.T. (2017) 'The impact of social media on software engineering practices and tools', Proceedings of the FSE/SDP workshop on Future of software engineering research, pp. 359-364.

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