# How to schedule meetings across time zones: a practical guide

> How to schedule meetings across time zones: find the overlap, choose a fair slot and avoid 2026 daylight saving traps, with US–UK and US–Australia windows.

Source: https://timehint.app/blog/schedule-meetings-across-time-zones

To schedule meetings across time zones well, you need two things: arithmetic you can trust, and a fair way to decide who takes the awkward hour. A converter gives you the first. This guide covers both, with worked examples.

Take Dana in San Francisco, Tom in London and Priya in Bengaluru. They need a 30-minute call every week. In October 2026 their clocks span twelve and a half hours, so no time is mid-morning for all three. The real question isn't "when are we all free?" It's "who stretches, by how much, and how often?"

Below: how to find the overlap on a half-hour grid, overlap windows for city pairs people commonly look up, how to choose and rotate a slot, and the 2026 daylight saving dates that quietly move recurring meetings. Every clock time and offset in this guide was computed from the IANA time zone database for the date shown.

## What an overlap window is

An overlap window is a stretch of time, on a specific date, when everyone who needs to attend is inside their working hours. You describe it in each person's local time: "9:00 AM–12:00 PM in New York, which is 2:00–5:00 PM in London."

Three details make it more than a subtraction:

- **It belongs to a date.** The gap between two cities changes whenever one of them starts or ends daylight saving time. New York and London are five hours apart for most of the year, but only four hours apart for three weeks in March and one week at the end of October.
- **It depends on each person's hours,** not on a standard office day. More on that in the next section.
- **It needs half-hour precision.** India runs on UTC+5:30, so a grid of whole hours hides slots that start or end on the half-hour.

It also helps to name the hours just outside the working day. In this guide, **fringe** means up to two hours before someone starts and up to three hours after they finish. Fringe time is fine now and then. Anything beyond it is **off**, and a meeting there should be rare and agreed in advance.

## Why "9 to 6" is an assumption

Scheduling tools usually start from a default working day, often 9:00 AM to 5:00 or 6:00 PM. That default is a guess about people nobody has asked.

Real working days vary:

- Some people start at 7:00 AM so they can finish before school pickup. Others start at 10:00 AM and work into the evening.
- Some teams protect a focus block with no meetings at all.
- Part-time colleagues may only work certain days.
- Not every country's weekend falls on Saturday and Sunday, so a Friday afternoon slot can already be someone's weekend.

One hour at either end changes the answer more than you'd expect. New York and London share three working hours if both work 9:00 AM–5:00 PM: 9:00 AM–12:00 PM in New York. If both work until 6:00 PM, they share four. San Francisco and London share nothing on a 9-to-5 day. If London stays until 6:00 PM, they get one hour, 9:00–10:00 AM in San Francisco.

So ask once, and write it down. For each regular attendee, note:

1. Their city, not an abbreviation. [Abbreviations like IST and CST can each mean more than one place](https://timehint.app/blog/ambiguous-time-zone-abbreviations).
2. Their usual start and finish, in their own local time.
3. The fringe hours they'll accept occasionally, and any hours that are never OK.

## Find the overlap on a half-hour grid

You can do this on paper or in a spreadsheet. It takes about ten minutes the first time.

1. **Fix the date.** Use an actual day, such as Wednesday, October 14, 2026, not "a Wednesday." The answer can change from one week to the next.
2. **List each person's city and working hours.**
3. **Pick one reference clock for the rows.** UTC is easiest because it never changes for daylight saving time.
4. **Fill in each person's local time for every half-hour,** and mark it work, fringe or off.
5. **Read across.** First look for rows where everyone is at work. If there are none, look for rows where nobody is off.

Here's the grid for Dana, Tom and Priya on Wednesday, October 14, 2026. All three work 9:00 AM–5:00 PM. That day San Francisco is on Pacific Daylight Time (UTC−7), London on British Summer Time (UTC+1) and Bengaluru on India Standard Time (UTC+5:30). Only the rows that matter are shown.

| UTC | San Francisco | London | Bengaluru |
|---|---|---|---|
| 08:00 | 1:00 AM · off | 9:00 AM · work | 1:30 PM · work |
| 11:00 | 4:00 AM · off | 12:00 PM · work | 4:30 PM · work |
| 13:00 | 6:00 AM · off | 2:00 PM · work | 6:30 PM · fringe |
| **14:00** | **7:00 AM · fringe** | **3:00 PM · work** | **7:30 PM · fringe** |
| 14:30 | 7:30 AM · fringe | 3:30 PM · work | 8:00 PM · off |
| 15:00 | 8:00 AM · fringe | 4:00 PM · work | 8:30 PM · off |
| 16:00 | 9:00 AM · work | 5:00 PM · fringe | 9:30 PM · off |
| 17:00 | 10:00 AM · work | 6:00 PM · fringe | 10:30 PM · off |

What the grid tells you:

- **No row has all three at work.** Dana's 9:00 AM is already 9:30 PM for Priya.
- **London and Bengaluru share three and a half hours:** 9:00 AM–12:30 PM in London, which is 1:30–5:00 PM in Bengaluru.
- **San Francisco and London share nothing inside 9-to-5.** Dana starts at the moment Tom finishes.
- **Exactly one half-hour has nobody off:** 7:00–7:30 AM in San Francisco, 3:00–3:30 PM in London, 7:30–8:00 PM in Bengaluru.

That last row is the only single meeting that doesn't push someone into their night. It's also only 30 minutes long, which matters when you choose. First, though, it's worth knowing what the common pairs look like.

## Overlap windows for common city pairs

These are city pairs that people in the US, UK, Canada, Australia, Ireland, New Zealand and Singapore commonly look up. Both people are assumed to work 9:00 AM–5:00 PM local time. July 15, 2026 stands for the northern summer and November 18, 2026 for the northern winter. The first city's times are on the date shown; "next day" marks the second city's date when it has moved on.

**Pairs that share working hours**

| Pair | July 15, 2026 | November 18, 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| New York–London (also Toronto–London, New York–Dublin) | 9:00 AM–12:00 PM New York = 2:00–5:00 PM London (3 h) | Same, 3 h |
| London–Bengaluru | 9:00 AM–12:30 PM London = 1:30–5:00 PM Bengaluru (3.5 h) | 9:00–11:30 AM London = 2:30–5:00 PM Bengaluru (2.5 h) |
| London–Singapore | 9:00–10:00 AM London = 4:00–5:00 PM Singapore (1 h) | None. 8:00 AM London = 4:00 PM Singapore |
| Sydney–Singapore | 11:00 AM–5:00 PM Sydney = 9:00 AM–3:00 PM Singapore (6 h) | 12:00–5:00 PM Sydney = 9:00 AM–2:00 PM Singapore (5 h) |
| San Francisco–Sydney | 4:00–5:00 PM San Francisco = 9:00–10:00 AM Sydney, next day (1 h) | 2:00–5:00 PM San Francisco = 9:00 AM–12:00 PM Sydney, next day (3 h) |
| San Francisco–Auckland | 2:00–5:00 PM San Francisco = 9:00 AM–12:00 PM Auckland, next day (3 h) | 12:00–5:00 PM San Francisco = 9:00 AM–2:00 PM Auckland, next day (5 h) |
| New York–Auckland | None. 5:00 PM New York = 9:00 AM Auckland, next day | 3:00–5:00 PM New York = 9:00–11:00 AM Auckland, next day (2 h) |

**Pairs with no shared 9-to-5 hours: the closest workable slot**

| Pair | July 15, 2026 | November 18, 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| San Francisco–London (also Vancouver–London) | 8:00 AM San Francisco = 4:00 PM London | Same |
| London–Sydney | 8:00 AM London = 5:00 PM Sydney | 8:00 AM London = 7:00 PM Sydney, or 9:00 PM London = 8:00 AM Sydney, next day |
| New York–Sydney | 6:00 PM New York = 8:00 AM Sydney, next day | 4:00 PM New York = 8:00 AM Sydney, next day |
| London–Auckland | 9:00 PM London = 8:00 AM Auckland, next day | 8:00 PM London = 9:00 AM Auckland, next day |
| New York–Singapore | 9:00 PM New York = 9:00 AM Singapore, next day | 8:00 PM New York = 9:00 AM Singapore, next day |
| San Francisco–Singapore | 6:00 PM San Francisco = 9:00 AM Singapore, next day | 5:00 PM San Francisco = 9:00 AM Singapore, next day |
| San Francisco–Bengaluru | 8:00 AM San Francisco = 8:30 PM Bengaluru | 8:00 AM San Francisco = 9:30 PM Bengaluru |

Two patterns stand out:

- **The US afternoon is Australia's and New Zealand's next morning.** That also means Sydney's Monday 9:00 AM is Sunday afternoon in San Francisco: 2:00 PM in November, 4:00 PM in July. Avoid Monday mornings in Australia and Friday afternoons in the US.
- **Windows grow and shrink with the seasons.** San Francisco–Sydney has one shared hour in July and three in November, because California falls back while Sydney springs forward. London–Bengaluru loses an hour when the UK falls back, because India doesn't change its clocks.

## Choosing the best time to meet: coverage, length and civility

"Best" isn't the slot with the most names in it. Weigh three things:

- **Coverage.** How many of the people who must be there are inside their working hours?
- **Length.** Does the window fit the meeting, plus a few minutes either side for overruns?
- **Civility.** How far outside comfortable hours is the worst-placed person, and how often?

Headcount alone misleads. A 30-minute slot where everyone is technically available, but two people are stretched, can be worse than a two-hour window that suits the three people who must decide, with a fourth reading the notes. And a window at 3:00 AM for anyone is no window at all.

Back to Dana, Tom and Priya on October 14, 2026. Here are three real options:

| Option | San Francisco | London | Bengaluru |
|---|---|---|---|
| A. One 30-minute call | 7:00 AM · fringe | 3:00 PM · work | 7:30 PM · fringe |
| B. One 30-minute call | 8:00 AM · fringe | 4:00 PM · work | 8:30 PM · off |
| C. Two short calls | 9:00 AM · work (with Tom) | 9:30 AM with Priya, 5:00 PM with Dana | 2:00 PM · work (with Tom) |

- **Option A** has full coverage and nobody is off. But it has no margin: if the call runs 15 minutes over, Priya is past 8:00 PM, and both ends of the call are stretched every week.
- **Option B** looks friendlier for Dana, but it keeps Priya three and a half hours past her finish, every week.
- **Option C** keeps everyone in working hours. The cost is that Tom attends twice and carries context between the calls, so it only works with a short written summary.

A useful rule: for a status update, pick A or skip the call and write it down. For a decision that needs all three voices, use A and keep it tight, or use C with notes. When two options are close, break the tie in favor of the person who is stretched most, not the organizer.

**How Timehint helps**

Timehint puts the people and places you've saved (your cast) on one 24-hour line in the side panel. **Today in your cast** marks each band Work, Fringe or Off, and you can look ahead up to 14 days, which helps before a clock change.

**Overlap windows** lists up to three stretches when at least two of you are in working hours and flags the best one, weighing how many people are in, how long the window lasts and how civil the hour is in your day. Click one to preview it.

**Working hours** is one setting ("Your working day", 9:00 AM–6:00 PM by default) applied to everyone's local clock. Work is those hours, and Fringe is the two hours before and three after, the same rule this guide uses. Check colleagues whose days differ. Timehint doesn't send invites or book meetings. See [how Timehint finds meeting times](https://timehint.app/meeting-overlap).

## Rotate the inconvenience for recurring meetings

If the same person always takes the evening slot, it becomes a quiet tax on that person. Over a year, a weekly 8:30 PM call is more than 50 evenings. Rotation spreads the cost.

Here's a simple rotation for a weekly one-to-one between Dana in San Francisco and Priya in Bengaluru, valid through October 2026:

| Week | San Francisco | Bengaluru | Who stretches |
|---|---|---|---|
| Odd weeks | Wednesday 8:00 AM | Wednesday 8:30 PM | Priya, evening |
| Even weeks | Tuesday 7:30 PM | Wednesday 8:00 AM | Dana, evening |

From November 1, when San Francisco falls back and India doesn't, both Bengaluru times move an hour later: 9:30 PM and 9:00 AM. The San Francisco times stay the same, so the rotation now leans harder on Priya's evening. Revisit it after every clock change.

Rules that keep a rotation fair:

- **Publish the pattern for the quarter,** so nobody negotiates it every week.
- **Rotate on a fixed schedule, not by who complains.** The quietest person is often the one absorbing the late calls.
- **Count stretched hours** across the rotation. They should roughly balance.
- **Keep rotated meetings short.** Rotation makes a 30-minute evening call tolerable. It doesn't make a 90-minute one reasonable.
- **Check the weekday on both sides.** Tuesday evening in San Francisco is Wednesday morning in Bengaluru.
- **Accept when three zones won't rotate.** For San Francisco, London and Bengaluru, the grid has only one half-hour where nobody is off. Rotating away from it just moves someone into their night. Split the meeting instead, like option C.

## Daylight saving weeks in 2026

A recurring meeting is fixed in one time zone, usually the organizer's. When an attendee's clocks change and the organizer's don't, that attendee's local time for the meeting moves by an hour. Regions change on different Sundays, so for a few weeks each year "the usual gap" is wrong.

| Date (2026) | Who changes clocks | What moves |
|---|---|---|
| Sunday, March 8 | US and Canada spring forward at 2:00 AM local time | New York–London drops from 5 to 4 hours until March 29. San Francisco–London: 7 hours. |
| Sunday, March 29 | UK, Ireland and the EU spring forward at 01:00 UTC | New York–London back to 5 hours. London–Bengaluru: 4.5 hours. London–Sydney: 10 hours until April 5. |
| Sunday, April 5 | Sydney and New Zealand fall back at 3:00 AM local time | London–Sydney: 9 hours. New York–Sydney: 14 hours. London–Auckland: 11 hours. |
| Sunday, September 27 | New Zealand springs forward at 2:00 AM local time | London–Auckland: 12 hours. Sydney–Auckland: 3 hours until October 4. |
| Sunday, October 4 | Sydney (New South Wales) springs forward at 2:00 AM local time | London–Sydney: 10 hours. New York–Sydney: 15 hours. Sydney–Auckland back to 2 hours. |
| Sunday, October 25 | UK, Ireland and the EU fall back at 01:00 UTC | New York–London drops to 4 hours until November 1. London–Sydney: 11 hours. London–Bengaluru: 5.5 hours. |
| Sunday, November 1 | US and Canada fall back at 2:00 AM local time | New York–London back to 5 hours. New York–Sydney: 16 hours. |

Dates come from [NIST](https://www.nist.gov/pml/time-and-frequency-division/popular-links/daylight-saving-time-dst) for the US, [GOV.UK](https://www.gov.uk/when-do-the-clocks-change) for the UK, [Directive 2000/84/EC](https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dir/2000/84/oj) for the EU, the [NSW Government](https://www.nsw.gov.au/about-nsw/daylight-saving) for Sydney, the [New Zealand Government](https://www.govt.nz/browse/recreation-and-the-environment/daylight-saving/) for New Zealand, and the [IANA time zone database](https://www.iana.org/time-zones) for Canada and the city-pair gaps.

Two examples of how this shows up:

- **New York and London.** A weekly Wednesday meeting at 11:00 AM in New York is 4:00 PM in London most weeks. It's 3:00 PM on March 11, 18 and 25, and again on October 28.
- **San Francisco and Bengaluru.** Dana's 8:00 AM call is 8:30 PM for Priya through October. From November 4 it's 9:30 PM, because India doesn't use daylight saving time.

Some places don't change their clocks at all. India, China, Singapore and Japan keep the same offset all year. So do Queensland and Western Australia, according to the [NSW Government](https://www.nsw.gov.au/about-nsw/daylight-saving), and Arizona, except the Navajo Nation, according to [NIST](https://www.nist.gov/pml/time-and-frequency-division/popular-links/daylight-saving-time-dst).

What to do about it:

- Note the change dates for every attendee's region in the meeting description.
- The week before a change, send one line: "From March 29, this meeting is back to 4:00 PM London time."
- Write both local times in the invite text: "11:00 AM New York / 3:00 PM London on March 11."
- When you check a planner, look at the actual week, not a typical one.

The US and Europe gap weeks catch the most people. Our guide to the [US and Europe daylight saving mismatch](https://timehint.app/blog/us-europe-daylight-saving-mismatch) covers them in more detail.

## When there's no overlap

Some pairs simply don't share a working day. San Francisco–Bengaluru, New York–Singapore and London–Auckland have no shared 9-to-5 hours in July or November, and every option pushes someone into fringe time or beyond. That doesn't mean you can't work together. It means the live meeting stops being the default.

Options that work:

- **Split the meeting.** Run two short sessions, each inside a workable overlap, with one person or a written summary bridging them.
- **Write the update instead.** Post status in writing by a fixed time in each author's own day, and save live time for discussion.
- **Give decisions a full day.** Post the proposal with a deadline a day out, stated with a city: "Decision closes 5:00 PM Wednesday, London time." Everyone gets a working day to respond, wherever they are.
- **Record walkthroughs.** A short recording plus written questions often replaces a demo meeting.
- **Hand off at the end of your day.** Leave a short note: what's done, what's blocked, and what the next person should pick up.
- **Keep a few live moments.** Kickoffs, difficult conversations and urgent problems are worth a stretched slot. Keep them rare, and thank whoever stayed up.

One habit helps every async team: drop "EOD" and "tomorrow." Whose end of day, and whose tomorrow? Write the time with a city and a date instead.

## How to propose meeting times by email

Most scheduling mistakes happen in the message, not the math. When you propose times to people in several places, offer two or three options and write each one in every attendee's local time:

> Could we meet at one of these times? Each is shown for all three of us.
>
> - Wednesday, October 14: 7:00 AM San Francisco / 3:00 PM London / 7:30 PM Bengaluru
> - Thursday, October 15: 7:00 AM San Francisco / 3:00 PM London / 7:30 PM Bengaluru
>
> If neither works, reply with two times that suit you, in your own city's time.

A few rules make the message hard to misread:

- **Use city names, not abbreviations.** "3:00 PM IST" in October could be India or Ireland.
- **Add the weekday and date** whenever the time crosses midnight for someone.
- **Name the week** if the meeting falls within a couple of weeks of a clock change.

For formats, signatures and copy-paste templates, see [how to write time zones in an email](https://timehint.app/blog/how-to-write-time-zones-in-email).

## Checklist: how to schedule meetings across time zones

Good time zone etiquette comes down to asking once, writing clearly and sharing the cost. Before you send the invite:

- Confirm each required attendee's city and real working hours.
- Check the specific date, not a typical week.
- Find the overlap on a half-hour grid, and note who is in fringe or off time.
- Choose by coverage, length and civility, not headcount alone.
- Break ties in favor of the most stretched person.
- Keep fringe-hour meetings short, and rotate recurring ones.
- Split the meeting or go async when no single slot is fair.
- Write every option in each attendee's local time, with city names.
- Add the weekday and date when a time crosses midnight.
- List the daylight saving dates for everyone's regions, and send a reminder the week before a change.
- Record decisions in writing, so people who couldn't attend can act on them.

## Frequently asked questions

### What's the best time for a meeting between the US and the UK?

From New York or Toronto, meet between 9:00 AM and 12:00 PM Eastern Time, which is 2:00–5:00 PM in London. Aim for 10:00 or 11:00 AM in New York to leave room at both ends. From the West Coast there's no shared 9-to-5 time: 8:00 AM in San Francisco is 4:00 PM in London. Between March 8 and March 29, and between October 25 and November 1, 2026, the gap is an hour shorter, so the London time is an hour earlier than usual.

### What's the best time for a meeting between the US and Australia?

Use the US afternoon, which is the next morning in Australia. From San Francisco in November 2026, 2:00–5:00 PM is 9:00 AM–12:00 PM the next day in Sydney. In July the shared time shrinks to 4:00–5:00 PM, which is 9:00–10:00 AM in Sydney. From New York there's no shared 9-to-5 time: try 5:00 PM in New York (9:00 AM in Sydney) in November, or 6:00 PM (8:00 AM in Sydney) in July. Avoid US Friday afternoons, which are already Saturday in Australia.

### How many hours of overlap do you need?

It depends on how often you need to talk. For a team that works closely every day, two to three shared hours is comfortable: room for a meeting plus quick questions. One protected hour can carry a weekly call. With less than that, make written updates the default and keep live calls short and rotated.

### Should a meeting be set in the organizer's time zone?

An invite has to be anchored to one time zone, and the organizer's is the usual default. That's a technical detail, not a fairness rule. Choose the slot with the most stretched attendee in mind, then state everyone's local time in the message. For a recurring series, remember that the meeting stays fixed in the anchor zone, so everyone else's local time can move when clocks change.

### Why is my usual meeting an hour off this week?

One attendee's region has changed its clocks and another's hasn't yet. In 2026 the US and Canada changed on March 8 and change back on November 1, while the UK, Ireland and the EU changed on March 29 and change back on October 25. Sydney and New Zealand fell back on April 5; New Zealand springs forward on September 27 and Sydney on October 4. During the gap weeks, a meeting fixed at 11:00 AM in New York is 3:00 PM in London instead of 4:00 PM.