Scheduling across continents means doing arithmetic on time zones, and daylight saving makes it worse. Pick a date, choose your location and one or two others, set what counts as working hours, and the planner lists every hour of the day with the local time in each place. Rows where everyone is inside working hours are ticked.
How to use it
- Choose the date of the meeting.
- Select your time zone and one or two other locations.
- Set when the working day starts and ends.
- Look for rows with a tick.
When it helps
- Scheduling calls with colleagues overseas.
- Planning webinars for a global audience.
- Finding a fair time for a spread-out team.
- Avoiding calls at 3 a.m. for somebody.
Good to know
- The date matters because daylight saving changes the overlap between zones at different times of year.
- If there's no tick anywhere, widen the working hours or accept an early start for one side.
- In the invitation, give the time in each person's own zone.
How the grid is built
For your chosen date, the tool takes each hour of the day in your own time zone, works out what time it is in the other locations at that moment, and checks whether every location falls inside your working hours. Rows where everyone fits get a tick.
It uses your browser's built-in time zone database, so daylight saving rules for each place and date are applied automatically. That matters in March, April, October and November, when different countries change clocks on different weekends.
Worked example: Lagos and New York
Lagos is on UTC+1 all year. New York is UTC-5 in winter and UTC-4 in summer. With working hours of 9 to 18, a meeting at 15:00 in Lagos is 9:00 in New York in winter, which is the earliest start for New York, and a 16:00 Lagos start is 10:00 there. The overlap is a window of about two to three hours.
Add a third location such as London, and the window narrows. If nothing works, widen one side's hours or alternate who takes the awkward time.
Tips for fair scheduling
Rotate inconvenient times so the same people don't always join late at night. Record meetings for people who can't attend. Share the time in each person's local time zone in the invitation, and use your calendar's time zone feature.
Remember that some countries, like India, use half-hour offsets, and others, like Nepal, use 45 minutes. The tool handles those correctly.
Etiquette for global teams
State the time zone every time you propose a meeting, and share a link to a world clock. Avoid acronyms that vary by region, such as CST, which can mean Central, China or Cuba Standard Time. Use UTC offsets or city names instead.
Be flexible. A team that rotates meeting times shares the burden, and recording sessions helps people who couldn't attend.
Questions
Does it handle daylight saving?
Yes, it uses the rules for the date you choose.
Can I add a fourth zone?
Not in this tool; pick the three most important.