Does real-time messaging slow down collaboration?

There seems to be a subtle but crucial difference in how collaboration flows when I compare chat (like Slack) and asynchronous messaging platforms (like Basecamp, GitHub or email).

When I receive an inquiry from a coworker as a real-time message, I tend to either:

• Reply right away: not great for me, as it has likely broken the current train of thought in what I’ve been working on.
• File it in my personal task manager and deal with it later: not great for my coworker, because they may get the response day(s) from now.

In contrast, we can process asynchronous messages as an email inbox — in batch mode — at a time that suits us and when our attention is tuned for collaboration.

At Semaphore we’ve recently made some conscious efforts to use group chat a little less. And here’s the observation that has surprised me. The average asynchronous reply usually arrives faster comparing to when similar inquries were made via chat.

One one hand it certainly matters a lot how we use a certain tool. But on the other, there’s a limit to how much we can control and adapt our natural tendencies, especially in a group setting.