Working Across Time Zones? Here’s How SEA Teams Can Actually Stay in Sync

What Usually Goes Wrong

“This is what sync looks like.” The good news: smart remote teams have figured out better ways to work across time zones. High-performing distributed teams deliberately adopt habits that keep them in sync (and sane) despite odd hours. Here’s what they do differently:

“This is where we lose time.” When teams first start collaborating across continents, a few common pitfalls keep coming up:

• No clear handover or end-of-day updates: Without an end-of-day summary or documented handoff, tasks fall into a void until the original owner comes online again. Colleagues in other time zones often start their day without context or updates on what was done, leading to duplicate work or stalled projects overnight.

• “Ping-and-pray” chat habits: Team members fire off messages or questions late in their day and then essentially pray someone on the other side will respond immediately. If that person has signed off, decisions end up waiting until the next day. Research shows each hour of time zone separation lowers the chances of a timely real-time reply synchronous communication frequency drops ~11% per hour of separation. That means even a 3–4 hour gap can push simple questions into next-day territory, delaying decisions by an entire day.

• Too many live meetings across time zones: When teams default to frequent live meetings despite big time differences, someone is always sacrificing their off-hours. Constant late-night or pre-dawn calls aren’t sustainable and often lead to burnout. Additionally, over-reliance on real-time video chats can hurt efficiency and disrupt people’s “deep work” focus time.

• Delayed feedback loops: A designer in Manila uploads a draft at 5 PM their time – but the London reviewer won’t see it until their next workday. Without any process to give asynchronous feedback, the draft might sit idle for 12+ hours. These slow turnarounds add up, and projects that could have been wrapped in a day stretch across the week.

• Working like you’re in the same country (when you’re not): Perhaps the root of all the above problems is pretending the time difference doesn’t exist. Teams fall into the trap of treating a global team like a single-office team – expecting instant replies, not adjusting deadlines, and forgetting that half your colleagues aren’t online at the same moment.

It’s easy to see how these missteps compound. Before long, the disconnect leads to “missed deadlines, messy handovers, slow responses, and too many awkward calendar invites”. Projects lose momentum, communication gets clunky, and everyone ends up frustrated. In fact, one study of a globally distributed company found that a 9-hour time difference without proper process caused output to plummet by 70% not from lack of skill, but from the friction of bad timing and coordination.

What High-Performing Teams Do

“This is what sync looks like.” The good news: smart remote teams have figured out better ways to work across time zones. High-performing distributed teams deliberately adopt habits that keep them in sync (and sane) despite odd hours. Here’s what they do differently:

• They communicate with clear async updates. Instead of chasing each other for live meetings or pinging “Are you around?” at random, they document updates in shared spaces and record quick videos for context. For example, rather than wait to schedule a call, a teammate will record a 5-minute Loom video walking through a complex update or feedback, and share it for others to watch on their own time. Written recap notes, project board updates, or annotated docs ensure that when you log in, you can get up to speed without needing someone on a Zoom call immediately. This culture of writing things down and recording explanations keeps everyone aligned across different hours.

• They have daily check-ins (or standups) during overlap time. Even mostly-asynchronous teams benefit from a short window of live interaction. The best teams identify a sliver of overlapping working hours and use it for brief, focused check-ins For instance, a SEA team collaborating with a UK team might find that 4–5 PM Singapore time works as a quick standup slot with the UK morning. By touching base once a day when everyone is online, they surface blockers and maintain human connection. (If someone truly has zero overlap, teams often do text-based standups in chat e.g. posting updates each day by a certain hour.) The key is establishing some regular rhythm for live communication so no one feels stranded on an island.

• They set team norms for response times and emergencies. High-performing global teams don’t leave communication to chance. They explicitly agree on guidelines: for example, “We respond to non-urgent messages within 24 hours” and “If something is blocking your work and the person responsible is offline, here’s our backup plan.” Defining these expectations removes the guesswork. Team members know when they’re expected to reply, and also when they don’t have to (no pressure to answer chat at 3 AM). They also establish backup contacts or rotating “on-call” arrangements for urgent needs, so a critical issue isn’t stuck waiting on one sleeping colleague. In short, nothing languishes in limbo – there’s always a path to move forward. (One tip: document these norms in a “team communication charter.” Many teams set acceptable response windows, preferred channels for different needs, and criteria for when to escalate to a live call)

• They share calendars and tools that make time zones transparent. Scheduling gets infinitely easier when you can actually see your teammates’ local times. Top remote teams use shared calendars with time zone conversion, scheduling tools, or even a simple team time zone spreadsheet. For example, having everyone’s working hours on a Google Calendar or using a tool like World Time Buddy means you don’t accidentally plan a meeting for midnight someone’s time. A shared “time zone map” or calendar takes the mental math out of coordination. The result: far fewer awkward meeting invites because you can instantly tell when overlap is feasible.

• They hold fewer meetings (and prep the heck out of the ones they do have). Because they embrace asynchronous communication, these teams don’t need endless status meetings. Quick Loom videos, detailed project updates, and chat threads replace the many “just checking in” calls that less efficient teams rely on. When a real-time meeting is truly necessary (say, a brainstorming or a quarterly retro), they are thoughtful about who really needs to attend and they share an agenda or docs in advance. This way, the meeting is concise and productive, and no one is dragged into a live call at an odd hour without good reason. By reducing unnecessary meetings, they give everyone more focus time and avoid burnout.

“You don’t need to work the same hours. You need to work at the same rhythm.”

That’s a mantra we use at ugp, and it’s been proven true time and again. Once you stop forcing 9-to-5 sameness and start creating a shared rhythm (through updates, check-ins, and agreed norms), the whole team falls into flow. Now, let’s get specific about how to actually do this. Below is the playbook our own distributed team uses to stay in sync across SEA, Australia, Europe, and beyond.

The ugp Time Zone Playbook

“Do this to stop losing time.” Every team is a little different, but these five practices have helped us and our clients work seamlessly across time zones. Think of it as a plug-and-play toolkit for async collaboration:

• Create a shared “Working Hours” doc or table for the team. First, make the differences explicit. Have each team member share their normal working hours, time zone, and preferred overlap times, and compile this into a reference doc or spreadsheet that everyone can see. This simple step builds awareness and empathy. You're less likely to ask Johnny in London for a quick turnaround at what is clearly 2 AM this time. It also helps in scheduling: before proposing a meeting or deadline, you can check this doc to ensure it’s reasonable for all. Encourage new hires to discuss their ideal work hours and add them to the doc from day one. By mapping your team’s “clock,” you lay the groundwork for realistic expectations and mutual respect.

• Establish a daily handover ritual for async work. When your day is ending, someone else’s is beginning so make it a habit to pass the baton. High-performing global teams institute an end-of-day update ritual: before signing off, each person leaves notes on what they completed, any issues encountered, and what the next step is for whoever picks it up. This could be a brief chat message, a task update in your project management tool, or a short entry in a running log. The idea is to never let work just “pause” without context. For example, a developer in Bangalore might update the ticket with progress and tag the New York teammate who will continue the work in the morning. Come the next day, the NY teammate knows exactly where to start. By closing the loop each day, you avoid the dreaded lost-in-transition gap.

• Use Loom (or similar) for complex feedback instead of waiting for a call. Not everything can be explained neatly in text. But that doesn’t mean you should halt progress waiting to schedule a meeting. If you have detailed input or a walkthrough that would take 15 minutes to explain live, try recording a quick video for your colleague. Tools like Loom let you capture your screen and voice to explain designs, code, documents, anything visual or nuanced. For instance, rather than saying “we’ll discuss the design feedback in tomorrow’s call,” a manager can record a Loom with annotations on the design file and send it off. The designer can watch it first thing in their morning. This way, feedback cycles speed up without requiring everyone to be present at once. It’s like having a conversation that the other person can “attend” on their own schedule.

• Set internal deadlines ahead of external ones to allow a buffer for reviews. Time zone lags can turn a tight deadline into a missed deadline if you’re not careful. To counter this, build in a cushion. If a client deliverable is due Friday EOD, a distributed team might set an internal deadline for Thursday or very early Friday. That gives a few working hours for teammates in other zones to review, give feedback, and make tweaks before the real due time. In practice, this means consciously assigning due dates with time zone differences in mind, so no one is scrambling at 11 PM or handing off work at the last second. It also reduces stress. Everyone knows there’s a little daylight if things slip, rather than finding out too late that half the team was asleep when an urgent change was needed.

• Respect each other’s “deep work” hours and offline time. In a globally distributed team, there will be times when one person’s normal work hours are another’s late night or focus block. High-performing teams treat those boundaries as sacred. That means not expecting instant responses outside someone’s stated working hours, and avoiding scheduling non-critical meetings during odd hours for them. It also means acknowledging that just because you’re online doesn’t mean everyone should be. This attitude is more than just polite; it's been called “cultural hygiene” in remote teams. By practicing respect for colleagues’ off-hours and uninterrupted focus time, you build trust and prevent burnout. In concrete terms: if you know a teammate is offline, you leave an async message and then let them respond when they start work, instead of spamming every channel. Over time, this mutual respect for personal time actually increases productivity. People can recharge and do deep work without constant interruption, making the hours they do work far more effective.

Need a Time Zone Template?

We’ve built the ugp Time Zone Sync Tracker in Notion ready for you to duplicate and use right away.

It’s a plug-and-play doc to manage team working hours, shared rituals (like daily handovers), async updates, and more, all in one place.
Basically, it’s our playbook in template form, so you can adapt it to your team in minutes.

Get the Time Zone Sync Tracker

‍It’s time to stop losing time and start syncing up no matter where your teammates are logging in from.