I think I am not really well-adapted for async communication.
I can't really do "fire and forget" messaging. When I ask something I want the reply to arrive as quickly as possible because I don't want to lose the context that I have in my mind right now and load it again later when I receive a reply. On an async channel this results in compulsive checking for replies which of course kills productivity. Almost-sync channels like Slack are the worst - who didn't experience the frustration of their chat partner suddenly disappearing without a word in the middle of a discussion?
On a related note I very much prefer a focused half-hour meeting to a whole day of async back-and-forths.
Inbound messages are problematic too because they provide the same kind of addictive random gratification that social media is infamous for.
I can't really do "fire and forget" messaging. When I ask something I want the reply to arrive as quickly as possible because I don't want to lose the context that I have in my mind right now and load it again later when I receive a reply. On an async channel this results in compulsive checking for replies which of course kills productivity. Almost-sync channels like Slack are the worst - who didn't experience the frustration of their chat partner suddenly disappearing without a word in the middle of a discussion?
On a related note I very much prefer a focused half-hour meeting to a whole day of async back-and-forths.
Inbound messages are problematic too because they provide the same kind of addictive random gratification that social media is infamous for.
Any tips for dealing with these problems?