diff --git a/futures-ext/src/lib.rs b/futures-ext/src/lib.rs
index 144181d144..d6789c7f31 100644
--- a/futures-ext/src/lib.rs
+++ b/futures-ext/src/lib.rs
@@ -476,39 +476,61 @@ macro_rules! ensure_boxstream {
     };
 }
 
+/// Take a future, and run it on its own task, returning the result to the caller. This permits
+/// Rust to run the spawned future on a different thread to the task that spawned it, thus adding
+/// parallelism if used sensibly.
+/// Note that the spawning here is lazy - the new task will not be spawned if the returned future
+/// is dropped before it's polled.
+pub fn spawn_future<T, E, Fut, IntoFut>(f: IntoFut) -> impl Future<Item = T, Error = E>
+where
+    IntoFut: IntoFuture<Item = T, Error = E, Future = Fut>,
+    Fut: Future<Item = T, Error = E> + Send + 'static,
+    T: Send + 'static,
+    E: From<futures::Canceled> + Send + 'static,
+{
+    let (tx, rx) = oneshot::channel();
+
+    let fut = f.into_future().then(|res| {
+        let _ = tx.send(res);
+        Ok(())
+    });
+
+    future::lazy(move || {
+        let _ = tokio::spawn(fut);
+        rx.from_err().and_then(|v| v)
+    })
+}
+
+/// Given an `FnMut` closure, create a `Future` that will eventually execute the closure using
+/// Tokio's `blocking` mechanism, so that it is safe to call blocking code inside the closure
+/// without preventing other tasks from making progress.
+/// This returns a lazy future - it will not even attempt to run the blocking code until you poll
+/// the future.
+/// Note that this does not spawn the future onto its own task - use `asynchronize` below if you
+/// need to run the blocking code on its own thread, rather than letting it block this task.
+pub fn closure_to_blocking_future<T, E, Func>(f: Func) -> impl Future<Item = T, Error = E>
+where
+    Func: FnMut() -> Result<T, E>,
+    E: From<tokio_threadpool::BlockingError>,
+{
+    let mut func = f;
+    future::lazy(|| future::poll_fn(move || blocking(&mut func)))
+        .map_err(E::from)
+        .and_then(|res| res) // flatten Ok(res) => res
+}
+
 ///  This method allows us to take synchronous code, schedule it on the default tokio thread pool
-/// and convert it to the future. Func can return anything that is convertable to a future, for
-/// example, Result
-///
-/// ```
-/// use std::{thread, time};
-///
-/// asynchronize(move || {
-///   thread::sleep(time::Duration::from_secs(5));
-///   Ok(())
-/// })
-/// ```
+/// and convert it to the future. It's the combination of `spawn_future` (which runs a future on
+/// another thread) and `closure_to_blocking_future` (which turns a closure into a future).
 pub fn asynchronize<Func, T, E>(f: Func) -> impl Future<Item = T, Error = E>
 where
     Func: FnMut() -> Result<T, E> + Send + 'static,
     T: Send + 'static,
     E: From<tokio_threadpool::BlockingError> + From<futures::Canceled> + Send + 'static,
 {
-    let (tx, rx) = oneshot::channel();
+    let fut = closure_to_blocking_future(f);
 
-    let mut func = f;
-    let fut = future::lazy(|| future::poll_fn(move || blocking(&mut func)))
-        .map_err(E::from)
-        .and_then(|res| res) // flatten Ok(res) => res
-        .then(|res| {
-            let _ = tx.send(res);
-            Ok(())
-        });
-
-    future::lazy(move || {
-        let _ = tokio::spawn(fut);
-        rx.from_err().and_then(|v| v)
-    })
+    spawn_future(fut)
 }
 
 /// Simple adapter from `Sink` interface to `AsyncWrite` interface.