The Async-First Quarterly Planning Playbook for Distributed Teams
The classic two-day planning offsite is broken when half your team is asleep. Here is a two-week, async-first cadence that produces better OKRs without 18 hours of Zoom. -
Ho Chi Minh City and San Francisco have no natural overlap. The 14-hour gap is simply too large for regular working hours to meet. Treat the handoff like a relay — San Francisco wraps up and leaves notes for Ho Chi Minh City to pick up as their day begins. One seasonal catch: San Francisco springs forward and falls back, but Ho Chi Minh City doesn't, so the gap changes by an hour for several months of the year. To edit hours, add more timezones, and share with your team, create a free collaborative board.
| UTC (GMT+0) | 12am | 1am | 2am | 3am | 4am | 5am | 6am | 7am | 8am | 9am | 10am | 11am | 12pm | 1pm | 2pm | 3pm | 4pm | 5pm | 6pm | 7pm | 8pm | 9pm | 10pm | 11pm | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ho Chi Minh City Asia/Ho Chi Minh | 7am | 8am | 9am | 10am | 11am | 12pm | 1pm | 2pm | 3pm | 4pm | 5pm | 6pm | 7pm | 8pm | 9pm | 10pm | 11pm | Next Day 12am | 1am | 2am | 3am | 4am | 5am | 6am | |
| San Francisco America/Los Angeles | 5pm | 6pm | 7pm | 8pm | 9pm | 10pm | Previous Day 11pm | 12am | 1am | 2am | 3am | 4am | 5am | 6am | 7am | 8am | 9am | 10am | 11am | 12pm | 1pm | 2pm | 3pm | 4pm |
The classic two-day planning offsite is broken when half your team is asleep. Here is a two-week, async-first cadence that produces better OKRs without 18 hours of Zoom. -
Three client calls before breakfast and an inbox that never sleeps. A practical playbook for freelancers and agencies working with clients in five different countries, without sacrificing your evenings. -
If your 1:1 keeps getting moved, cancelled, or wedged into someone's evening, you have a structural problem, not a calendar problem. Here is how to run 1:1s that actually build trust across time zones. -