What to do if you don't have time to read all that documentation
Confluence, Notion, Google docs - how do you handle all those WORDS?
Welcome to RemoteThatWorks, a weekly newsletter hand-typed by the Valentina Thörner, the Empress of Remote herself. I talk about product leadership, process design, and people (and their relationships). Proudly non-AI, and proudly all-opinions-my-own. To work with me, find me on MentorCruise. Oh, and subscribe so you don’t miss out on the next post.
First things first: reading is part of your professional existence.
It’s part of your job, whether you are employed or independent.
When you collaborate across locations and time zones, meetings aren’t good enough. Documentation becomes a necessity, and usually in writing. This means you have to read, to comment, and to write.
A quick recap about why this is so important:
Your brain has a limited ability to keep track of important decisions and crucial information. As time goes by, new information substitutes or mashes up existing information. You can’t rely on your brain to remember everything.
Collaboration requires access to other people’s brains, so to speak. Relying on meetings and in-person conversations only slows you down - and it doesn’t scale.
And yet, the number one complaint I hear about asynchronous work is “I don’t have time to read.”
So here are some things you can do to keep up.
Find some TEA (time - energy - attention)
(Hat tip to Naomi Dunford for the concept).
To engage with content - written or recorded - you need time, energy and attention.
You won’t be able to read a thing if your day consists of back-to-back meetings, maybe with some double bookings thrown in for good measure.
Where to find time
Block off 30 minutes every day to go through your notifications and read up on what has been published in relevant spaces.
Add a buffer of 5-10 min before and after your meetings so you can prepare.
Blocking out time on your calendar to do the work can feel scary. Ultimately though, you are responsible for your schedule and for your results. You won’t get there through meetings alone. So make time for reading and thinking.
Where to find energy
Experiment with different times of the day to be able to focus on reading and thinking. Maybe it’s in the morning, maybe it’s after lunch break, or the half hour before you wrap up.
Read, then go for a 10 min walk outside. You’d be surprised by how much your brain can retain when combining information with fresh air and some light exercise.
It’s normal for your energy to fluctuate during the day. Find the time of the day that works for you and block it in your calendar.
How to create attention
Close everything that can ping you with notifications, e.g. Teams, Slack, your email (unless you are reading email), your phone.
If in the office, you may have to put on those huge headphones that signal to everyone else that you are currently not available.
In today’s world, paying attention to anything requires managing distractions - both internally and externally. (Here’s a framework.) Trying harder rarely works, so create a structure around yourself that helps you to focus on what you want to do.
Learn how to read first, then engage
Your colleagues, coworkers and clients are very likely in different time zones, with varying schedules, and ever changing availabilities. Sharing written information helps to be inclusive of those differences, making sure your level of information doesn’t depend on your presence in a meeting.
If someone shares a document with you to review, don’t wait for them to read it out to you in a meeting (unless you are 8 years old and it’s your bedtime story). Comment on the doc, or at the bare minimum, read it before the meeting so you can go directly into the conversation.
We are all past the age of having to rely on enforced reading time . So, find your team, and start reading.
Do you need help with your time management - or your processes? The only way to work with me 1-1 is currently via MentorCruise. Or reply to this email - I’ll definitely read your message and while I can’t promise a personal reply, your question or comment it might spark another newsletter :)
Thanks for pointing this out! Meetings are actual work, and so is reading and writing. We need to find the right balance for each situation.