The overlap trap: why 2 hours isn't enough (and what to do about it)
Your team has a 2-hour overlap. That should be plenty, right? Here's why it's not—and how to make it work anyway. —
You map out your team's timezones and find a 2-hour overlap window. Perfect, you think. Two hours is plenty for meetings, decisions, and live collaboration. You schedule everything in that window and expect smooth sailing.
Then reality hits. The 2-hour window feels cramped. Meetings run over. Decisions get delayed. People feel rushed. What looked like enough time on paper doesn't work in practice.
This is the overlap trap: assuming that any overlap is sufficient, without accounting for how time actually gets used.
Why 2 hours feels like 30 minutes
A 2-hour overlap sounds like 120 minutes of productive time. But in practice:
- Meetings start late (5 minutes here, 3 minutes there)
- Context switching between topics takes mental energy
- Buffer time between meetings gets eaten by overruns
- Deep work doesn't happen in a 2-hour window full of meetings
What you planned as 2 hours of overlap becomes 90 minutes of actual usable time, and that's if everything runs perfectly.
The math that actually matters
If you have a 2-hour overlap and you need:
- 1 weekly team meeting (1 hour)
- 1 weekly 1:1 with your manager (30 minutes)
- 1 weekly design review (30 minutes)
- Buffer time between meetings (15 minutes each = 30 minutes total)
You've used your entire overlap for just three meetings. There's no room for:
- Ad-hoc decisions that need live discussion
- Pairing sessions when someone is stuck
- Social connection that builds trust
- The unexpected things that always come up
This is why teams with small overlaps feel constantly behind. They're using every minute of overlap for scheduled meetings, leaving no flexibility for the work that actually needs to happen live.
What to do when overlap is tight
1. Protect the window ruthlessly
If your overlap is small, every meeting needs to justify its existence. Cancel status updates that could be async. Combine related topics into single sessions. Say no to meetings that don't require everyone to be live.
2. Make async the default
The smaller your overlap, the more you need to default to async communication. Use your overlap for decisions and ambiguous problems. Everything else—status updates, reviews, planning—should happen async.
3. Rotate the burden
If you need more overlap, rotate who works odd hours. Don't make the same person join at 6am every week. Share the pain, and make it visible to the team.
4. Schedule shorter meetings
A 2-hour overlap doesn't mean you schedule 2-hour meetings. It means you have 2 hours total. Use 25-minute or 50-minute blocks, and end on time. The buffer you create becomes flexibility for the unexpected.
5. See the real overlap
Map your team's actual working hours, not just timezone conversions. The person who "works 9–5" might actually be available 10–6. That extra hour might be the difference between a workable overlap and one that's too tight.
Create a shared board on timezoners.com to see everyone's working hours side-by-side. You might discover your overlap is actually 2.5 hours, not 2. Or you might see that one person's schedule shift could create a better window for everyone.
When overlap is truly impossible
Some teams genuinely have no overlap—maybe 30 minutes or less, or maybe none at all. In these cases:
- Async becomes mandatory, not optional
- Recorded updates replace live status meetings
- Written handoffs become the primary communication method
- Decisions happen async with clear deadlines for input
This isn't ideal, but it's workable. The teams that succeed with zero overlap are the ones that commit fully to async workflows and use their rare live moments for trust-building, not status updates.
The test: can you handle the unexpected?
A good overlap isn't just enough time for your scheduled meetings. It's enough time for your scheduled meetings plus the unexpected things that always come up.
If your 2-hour overlap is completely booked with recurring meetings, you don't have 2 hours—you have zero flexibility. That's when small overlaps become a real problem.
Try this: block 30 minutes of your overlap as "flex time" each week. Don't schedule anything in it. Use it for ad-hoc decisions, pairing sessions, or just catching up. If you can't afford to leave 30 minutes unscheduled, your overlap is too tight.
Making small overlaps work
The teams that succeed with tight overlaps are the ones that:
- Default to async for everything that doesn't need to be live
- Protect their overlap window like it's their most valuable resource
- Make the burden visible and rotate it fairly
- See the real overlap (working hours, not just timezones) and optimize for it
Start by mapping your actual working hours, not just assuming 9–5. You might find your overlap is bigger than you think. Or you might confirm it's truly tight, which means you need to be even more disciplined about async-first workflows.
The overlap trap isn't about the number of hours—it's about assuming any overlap is enough. See the real window, protect it, and use it wisely. Your team's productivity (and sanity) depends on it.