How to schedule a meeting across time zones
Find the overlap of working hours, put the time in each person's own zone in the invite, and send it as a calendar event, never as plain text. The steps below take two minutes with the world clock and meeting planner.
1. List where everyone is, by city
Use cities, not abbreviations. "CST" can mean US Central, China or Cuba Standard Time, and "EST" doesn't change when the US East Coast moves to daylight time. Add each city to the world clock.
2. Find the overlap
The planner under the world clock shows each city's hours side by side, with working hours shaded. Look for a column that's daytime for everyone. Some realistic windows:
| Teams in | Best overlap (New York time) |
|---|---|
| US East and UK/Europe | 8 AM – noon |
| US West and Europe | 8 – 10 AM (early for the West Coast, late afternoon in Europe) |
| US and India | 8 – 10 AM, or evening US / morning India around 9 PM |
| US and Japan or Australia | 6 – 8 PM (morning in Tokyo and Sydney) |
| Europe and India | Morning in Europe (afternoon in India) |
3. Mind daylight saving time
The US and Europe change their clocks on different dates, so for a few weeks each March and October/November the gap between them shrinks by an hour. The southern hemisphere changes in the opposite direction, and most of Asia, Africa and South America never change. Check the daylight saving dates before booking a recurring meeting.
4. Send a calendar invite
Google Calendar, Outlook and Apple Calendar store meetings in UTC and show them in each guest's own time. If you must write the time in text, give it in two or three zones: "Tuesday 9:00 AM New York / 2:00 PM London / 6:30 PM Mumbai". The time zone converter does the math.
5. Share the pain
If no time works for everyone, rotate a recurring meeting so the same people aren't always on at 7 AM or 9 PM, and record it for those who can't attend.
Quick checklist
- Cities, not abbreviations.
- Check for "tomorrow": a Monday-evening US meeting is Tuesday morning in Asia and Australia.
- Check daylight saving dates for recurring meetings.
- Use a calendar invite, not a time in an email.