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. -
San Francisco and Ho Chi Minh City sit on opposite ends of the clock — a 14-hour gap leaves no common business hours to work with. Lean on recorded updates, shared docs, and clear handoffs so the 14-hour gap doesn't stall progress between meetings. Note the seasonal wrinkle: when San Francisco is on daylight saving and Ho Chi Minh City isn't, the gap between them grows or shrinks by an hour. 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 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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 | |
| 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 |
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. -