A quiet shift in how I handle my work hours across time zones

I used to keep a rigid 9 to 5 schedule based on my home country, which meant working some very late nights in Bali to sync with clients. Now I batch my communication for two specific 90-minute windows, one in their morning and one in mine, and protect the rest of the day for focused work. Has anyone else found a better system for managing the time zone juggle without burning out?

3 comments

3 Comments

torres.drew2mo agoMost Upvoted

That batching idea is pretty smart. Read about a guy who does something similar but with "office hours" instead. He just tells everyone he's only on email and calls for two set hours a day, no matter where they are. It forces people to plan ahead and cuts down on the constant back and forth. Seems way less stressful than trying to be on call across three different time zones all day. Might have to try a version of that myself.

west.alice2mo ago

Yeah, the "on call across three time zones" part is my whole life right now. I tried the office hours thing last month. My big plan lasted about four days before I caved and answered a Slack message at 10pm. Setting boundaries is easy until your brain decides being helpful is more important than sleep.

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aarons361mo ago

Wait you actually answered a Slack message at 10pm? That's wild, I could never. Once my laptop closes for the day my brain is totally offline. The whole point of setting those hours is to save your own sanity, you gotta stick to it or it just doesn't work.

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