diff --git a/src/applications/dashboard/paneltype/PhabricatorDashboardPanelType.php b/src/applications/dashboard/paneltype/PhabricatorDashboardPanelType.php
index 4bcc6200a7..377c56b39f 100644
--- a/src/applications/dashboard/paneltype/PhabricatorDashboardPanelType.php
+++ b/src/applications/dashboard/paneltype/PhabricatorDashboardPanelType.php
@@ -7,6 +7,29 @@ abstract class PhabricatorDashboardPanelType extends Phobject {
   abstract public function getPanelTypeDescription();
   abstract public function getFieldSpecifications();
 
+  abstract public function renderPanelContent(
+    PhabricatorUser $viewer,
+    PhabricatorDashboardPanel $panel,
+    PhabricatorDashboardPanelRenderingEngine $engine);
+
+  /**
+   * Should this panel pull content in over AJAX?
+   *
+   * Normally, panels use AJAX to render their content. This makes the page
+   * interactable sooner, allows panels to render in parallel, and prevents one
+   * slow panel from slowing everything down.
+   *
+   * However, some panels are very cheap to build (i.e., no expensive service
+   * calls or complicated rendering). In these cases overall performance can be
+   * improved by disabling async rendering so the panel rendering happens in the
+   * same process.
+   *
+   * @return bool True to enable asynchronous rendering when appropriate.
+   */
+  public function shouldRenderAsync() {
+    return true;
+  }
+
   public static function getAllPanelTypes() {
     static $types;
 
@@ -40,19 +63,4 @@ abstract class PhabricatorDashboardPanelType extends Phobject {
     return $types;
   }
 
-
-
-  public function renderPanelContent(
-    PhabricatorUser $viewer,
-    PhabricatorDashboardPanel $panel,
-    PhabricatorDashboardPanelRenderingEngine $engine) {
-    return pht('TODO: Panel content goes here.');
-  }
-
-  public function shouldRenderAsync() {
-    // TODO: For now, just make these things random so we can catch anything
-    // that breaks.
-    return (mt_rand(0, 1) == 1);
-  }
-
 }
diff --git a/src/applications/dashboard/paneltype/PhabricatorDashboardPanelTypeTabs.php b/src/applications/dashboard/paneltype/PhabricatorDashboardPanelTypeTabs.php
index 90b2071dc8..2386eabcfb 100644
--- a/src/applications/dashboard/paneltype/PhabricatorDashboardPanelTypeTabs.php
+++ b/src/applications/dashboard/paneltype/PhabricatorDashboardPanelTypeTabs.php
@@ -25,6 +25,11 @@ final class PhabricatorDashboardPanelTypeTabs
     );
   }
 
+  public function shouldRenderAsync() {
+    // The actual tab panel itself is cheap to render.
+    return false;
+  }
+
   public function renderPanelContent(
     PhabricatorUser $viewer,
     PhabricatorDashboardPanel $panel,
diff --git a/src/applications/dashboard/paneltype/PhabricatorDashboardPanelTypeText.php b/src/applications/dashboard/paneltype/PhabricatorDashboardPanelTypeText.php
index 9c39b740fe..11e0e7e5d1 100644
--- a/src/applications/dashboard/paneltype/PhabricatorDashboardPanelTypeText.php
+++ b/src/applications/dashboard/paneltype/PhabricatorDashboardPanelTypeText.php
@@ -26,6 +26,11 @@ final class PhabricatorDashboardPanelTypeText
     );
   }
 
+  public function shouldRenderAsync() {
+    // Rendering text panels is normally a cheap cache hit.
+    return false;
+  }
+
   public function renderPanelContent(
     PhabricatorUser $viewer,
     PhabricatorDashboardPanel $panel,