Doist Blog

Doist | Android Engineer | Remote-first | Full-time | Learn more & apply (through June 14): https://doist.com/careers/239B4E837A-android-engineer Doist’s mission is to empower people with simple yet powerful tools. We're a multidisciplinary, fully-remote, team that’s passionate about creating products, like Todoist and Twist, that improve people’s lives. We thrive on innovating new solutions to old productivity challenges and we seek to rethink how productivity tools are made. All our roles are fully remote, so you'll be free to work from wherever you please and on a schedule that works best for you. To learn more about who we are and how we work, please check out our blog: https://blog.doist.com/

Doist (http://doist.com) works similarly. See https://www.acquired.fm/episodes/what-remote-work-looks-like-in-2021-a… (paywalled) for a good description of it.

This book about teams working in an async way got recommended to me few times over the last year: https://products.arkency.com/async-remote/ Might be worthwhile looking at. (Not associated with authors at all) Also I found this article how Doist is doing async work really good: https://doist.com/blog/asynchronous-communication/

Slack is a great product, but with a wrong communication model. We have for the last three years developed Twist, which focuses on asynchronous communication by default. It includes some of the best features of Slack and email. We currently have about 1000 teams actively using it. Read more of our reasoning here: “Why We’re Betting Against Real-Time Team Messaging” https://blog.doist.com/why-were-betting-against-real-time-team-messagi…

It doesn't help that emoji and giphy are listed as prime features in this new offering. You're right that the applications can be used productively. I find that my work Slack is a lot less focused on being productive than the dev channels that I follow in Discord for open source projects. The other big issue is the discussion of asynchronous versus realtime communication: https://blog.doist.com/why-were-betting-against-real-time-team-messagi… I do find that in some Discord servers we accidentally exclude people living in different time zones, which is not as much the case with an async medium like Google Groups or other mailing lists.

Doist | Windows UWP Developer | World | Full-time | Remote: https://doist.com/jobs/#windows-uwp-developer Doist | Front-end Web Developer | World | Full-time | Remote: https://doist.com/jobs/#front-end-web-developer Doist | Api Integrations Developer | World | Full-time | Remote: https://doist.com/jobs/#api-integrations-developer Doist | Ai Developer | World | Full-time | Remote: https://doist.com/jobs/#ai-developer At Doist, we’re always striving to build not only amazing products but also amazing teams: Teams that innovate and change how productivity tools are made. Our flagship product is Todoist, a to do app with over 10 million users worldwide. These are all remote positions, so you'll be free to work from wherever you please. You could also choose to work from our office in Porto, Portugal, or we'll get you a co-working space in the city where you live. :)

Doist | Backend Engineer, Apple Engineer | REMOTE | Full-time | https://doist.com/careers We create simple yet powerful productivity tools like Todoist, used by millions worldwide. Backend Engineer: Work on the backend that powers Todoist at scale (millions of users, billions of tasks). Current challenges: re-sharding, a new sync engine, and making our systems ready for the next decade. Our stack: Python, SQLAlchemy, MySQL, Redis, AWS, and an in-house Flask-like framework. We’re looking for strong Python skills, experience with at least one other language, and curiosity about using AI competently to improve both developer workflows and product features. Apple Engineer: Opening this week. Please check our careers page. Fully remote across 30+ countries. 40 days PTO, coworking budget, hardware budget, AI tools, work & wellness budget, parental leave.

Sometimes the tool shapes behaviours. Things that are easier to do, will be done more often. The folks at Doist (makers of todoist app) created Twist.com because of their discontent with slack, it's very interesting to read their blog posts regarding the tool (and others regarding async work), as they state the default settings of an app shapes a lot of the common behaviour. So, for example, their tool does not send a post on the press of the ENTER key (it creates a new line). Sure slack can also do that, but it's not the default and it has impact. Anyway, it's interesting to read on their UX decisions they seem very thoughtful on UX (even if you might not agree with the toughts), and async/remote work stuff. edit: went to look for the post, it is older than I recall, and with the old look: https://blog.doist.com/designing-twist-the-challenge-of-making-teamwor…

Probably related: Async-First Communication https://blog.doist.com/async-first/

These kinds of notes never worked for me, but I've found the Feynman technique (inspired by Feynman) to be a very effective strategy for me that similarly derives its benefits from forcing me to synthesize and distill information. For those interested, it's basically just teaching concept (writing an article, talking to someone, etc.), usually after having studied it/taken notes. The idea is that teaching a concept, even to an imaginary audience, forces you to learn it on a fundamental level: https://blog.doist.com/feynman-technique/

For task management I use Todoist and couldn't be happier! Knowing they never allow themselves to be bought brings peace of mind that's unrivaled: https://blog.doist.com/no-exit-strategy/

I think asynchronous communication (https://blog.doist.com/asynchronous-communication/) moves in the right direction on this. 99% of things are not urgent, and people should not be expected to be available instantaneously. But implementing that requires discipline on the part of the person sending the message.

I'm sure there are specifics for Gumroad, but there are lots of insights available via other remote companies: https://blog.doist.com/asynchronous-communication/ https://zapier.com/blog/how-to-work-asynchronously/ Basically instead of waiting for a meeting to communicate, just write it down and send it out, via Slack or whatever. People can consume it on their own time.

https://blog.doist.com/feynman-technique/ basically go back and forth between trying to ELI5 the thing, and reading source material.

While I agree with much of the OP, I think it’s all over the place. Asynchronous Communication is they key to me and is described by some remote-first companies [0]. The medium of communication is up for debate. Co-edited design docs for example. In its simplest form I can write a draft of an ADR as markdown and add it to source control. Ensure people know it’s there and have them edit and comment in their own time. No extra tools needed. What you do need is a team of people able and willing to spend time working like this. Some teams consist of people that are just drifting along and you’re forced to stick everybody in a room and discuss that one issue with no distractions. 0 https://blog.doist.com/asynchronous-communication/

And here I was getting excited about the benefits of async communications with remote working from another article today: https://doist.com/blog/asynchronous-communication/ Solitude, "time alone with ones thoughts" or personal time is not everyones cup of tea, but depending on the individual, if thats your wheelhouse, the lack of distractions is priceless in regards to productivity.

I've been somewhat thrilled by the Twist teamwork app [1], I think it's built by the Todoist team, at least the company is the same. It specifically tries to bring back the focus aspect and goes against Slack [2]. Unfortunately my team is too small to have a substantial test whether it scales well, but on the surface, it seems quite a wonderful email and Slack replacement. [1] https://twist.com [2] https://doist.com/blog/switching-from-slack-to-twist/

Impressive talk :https://doist.com/blog/running-remote-2018-doist-presentation/

You should try Twist (https://twistapp.com/). I switched to Twist with my team and haven't looked back at Slack. Twist organizes discussions around tasks. When the task is finished, that conversation is pretty much over. Read this post by Amir, the founder of TwistApp - Why We're Betting Against Real Time Messaging - https://blog.doist.com/why-were-betting-against-real-time-team-messagi…

Try Twist: https://blog.doist.com/why-were-betting-against-real-time-team-messagi…

Why Doist is betting against group chat: https://blog.doist.com/why-were-betting-against-real-time-team-messagi…

Here's their official launch blog post: https://blog.doist.com/twist-mindful-team-communication-28e83e661e69

Doist | Full-stack developer (TypeScript) | Fully Remote + Async At Doist, our mission is to inspire the workplace of the future by creating simple yet powerful productivity tools that promote a more fulfilling way to work and live. The Integrations team at Doist is a mission-oriented team that aims to grow Todoist and Twist into platforms, as opposed to just apps. We own various integrations-related codebases but frequently contribute to first-party repos across Doist to meet its goals. The bulk of the code we write is TypeScript (either with React on the frontend or Express + NestJS on the backend), but we also occasionally contribute to legacy Python codebases. Most of us come from ecosystems other than JavaScript or TypeScript, but we’re fast learners who enjoy learning on the job. We're looking for a full-stack minded developer that will help us build not only integrations, but the platform capabilities to enable them in the first place. Apply https://doist.com/careers/0C46363085-full-stack-developer

The many blog posts (from people doing it) suggesting working remote and traveling the world is as easy as getting a remote job and travel the world: https://www.theladders.com/career-advice/how-i-perfected-traveling-the… https://doist.com/blog/travel-remote-work-digital-nomad/ https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/remote-work-digital-nomad https://www.thebalancecareers.com/working-remotely-while-traveling-206… etc Here's a US tax attorney talking about it: https://www.whereverwriter.com/digital-nomad-tax-questions/