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When to use asynchronous communication instead of scheduling a meeting

Published: 2026-05-17Updated: 2026-09-04

Not every piece of communication needs a meeting. GitLab, known for being fully remote, takes asynchronous communication as its baseline and spells out in its public Handbook a policy of not making meetings the default. Designing the split between synchronous and asynchronous correctly reduces the number of meetings itself and can greatly lower the burden of scheduling.

A decision matrix for synchronous vs asynchronous

Choose between synchronous (real-time meetings) and asynchronous (text or video messages) according to the nature of the communication. Decide with the matrix below.

Urgent × complex
→ Synchronous (immediate meeting)
Examples: incident response, handling complaints
Not urgent × complex
→ Synchronous (scheduled meeting)
Examples: strategy discussion, brainstorming
Urgent × simple
→ Chat (immediate)
Examples: approval requests, quick checks
Not urgent × simple
→ Asynchronous (documents)
Examples: information sharing, progress reports

Async-first principles to learn from GitLab

GitLab's Handbook (publicly available) spells out the following principles.

1
Write down what can be written
Instead of explaining verbally in a meeting, write a document and share it. Accept questions asynchronously as comments
2
Record meetings
Record every meeting and keep minutes so that people who could not attend can catch up later
3
Do not demand instant answers
Do not expect immediate replies to asynchronous messages. There is no obligation to reply outside working hours, and even teams across time zones get work done on each person's own time
4
Do not make meetings the default
First consider whether the work can move forward asynchronously, and set a meeting only when you judge it necessary

Types of meetings you can cut by going async

Routine reporting and sharing meetings have plenty of room to be replaced asynchronously. Going async tends to pay off especially for the following meetings.

Status report meetings
Very high
Information-sharing meetings
High
Review and approval meetings
High
Brainstorming
Low (divergent thinking favors sync)
Conflict resolution
Low (needs dialogue)
How well each type of meeting suits going asynchronous

Enabling asynchronous participation through minutes

Even when a meeting cannot be abolished entirely, thorough minutes make "asynchronous participation" possible. If the minutes record decisions, action items, and the main points of discussion, and there is a way for absentees to catch up, the need for everyone to gather at the same time itself fades.

Introducing asynchronous communication directly lightens the burden of scheduling remote meetings. As a starting point, picking one weekly information-sharing meeting and replacing it with asynchronous reports in Slack or Notion is low-risk and makes the effect easy to feel.

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