Find a meeting time without a round of emails
How Today in your cast and Overlap windows work: what the timeline draws, how the best window is scored, and what to do when there isn't one.
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Picking a time by email usually costs a round of "does 3 PM work for you?" replies, and a day. Timehint is a tool to find meeting times across time zones before you ask: everyone you've saved is drawn on one 24-hour timeline, and the stretches when you're all inside working hours are listed underneath it.
Today in your cast
Below your list of people and places, the timeline lays out a 24-hour band for you and for everyone you've saved. Each band is split into work, fringe and off hours on that person's own clock, and a line marks the current moment.
Three controls do the work:
- People / Places filters the view when your list is long.
- Today, Tomorrow or any date up to two weeks ahead moves the whole timeline to that day, offsets and all.
- Reset to now brings you back to the live day.
Because every band is drawn on its owner's clock, the shape of the picture is the answer: bands that line up are hours you share, and bands that don't are hours somebody would be giving up.
Overlap windows
Under the timeline, Overlap windows lists up to three stretches of the day when at least two of your cast are inside working hours. Each one shows:
- the time range on your clock, so you can read it without converting anything;
- who it covers: "Everyone in your cast", or "2 of 3 in working hours";
- how long it lasts.
Click a window and the timeline previews that moment, so you can see who is at the edge of their day before you propose it. When there's nothing to show, the panel says so plainly rather than offering a window nobody can make.
How the best window is chosen
The best window isn't simply the most crowded one. Each candidate is scored on three things:
- Coverage, worth half the score: how many of your cast can make it.
- Length, worth a quarter: longer is better, up to three hours.
- A reasonable hour for you, worth a quarter: the middle of your own working day scores highest.
Here's a worked example. You're in New York, Lukas is in Berlin and Priya is in Bengaluru. It's Monday, September 14, 2026, and working hours are the default 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM.
| Window (New York time) | Who's in working hours | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 9a – 12p, marked Best | You and Lukas (3:00–6:00 PM in Berlin) | 3 h |
| 3a – 8:30a | Lukas and Priya (9:00 AM–2:30 PM in Berlin, 12:30–6:00 PM in Bengaluru) | 5.5 h |
The longer window loses because it starts at 3 AM for you. That's the scoring rule doing exactly what you'd do in your head, and it's why coverage alone is the wrong measure.
When there's no good window
In that example, there is no stretch of the day when all three of you are working. New York and Bengaluru are 9½ hours apart in September, and the middles of those two working days simply don't touch.
Timehint doesn't hide that. The list shows the real trade-off: if Priya has to be there, someone meets outside their working day, and the only decision left is whose. Seeing it stated is more useful than a tool that invents a green slot at 7:00 AM and lets you find out later.
The simplest case: two people
Two cities are often enough to show how tight the arithmetic gets. You're in London, Kenji is in Tokyo, and you both work 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM. In September, Tokyo is 8 hours ahead, so his working day runs from 1:00 AM to 10:00 AM on your clock. The only hour you both have is 9:00 to 10:00 AM in London, which is 5:00 to 6:00 PM for him.
One hour, at the very end of his day. Knowing that before you write changes the email: you propose the hour that exists, rather than three that don't.
Working hours
Working hours is a single setting, Your working day, chosen in whole hours, 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM by default. It draws the bands and it drives the windows:
- Work is those hours on each person's local clock.
- Fringe is the two hours before the start and the three hours after the end: the times people are often reachable but shouldn't be expected to be.
- Off is everything else.
The setting applies to everyone in your cast; Timehint doesn't keep separate hours per person. Change it and the timeline redraws immediately. If your colleagues keep hours very different from yours, read the bands as a first pass and confirm with the person.
Checking a week before it arrives
The day picker reaches two weeks ahead, which covers the case that catches most recurring meetings: a clock change on one side of the call and not the other. In 2026 the UK and EU turn their clocks back on October 25 and the US on November 1, so in the week between them New York is four hours behind London instead of five. Move the timeline to a day inside that week and the bands shift; the overlap you rely on may move with them.
The full story of that fortnight, and which recurring meetings it breaks, is in US and Europe daylight saving out of sync.
Limits
- Timehint doesn't book anything. It shows you when to meet; sending the invitation is still your job.
- It uses one working-hours setting for your whole cast.
- It covers today and the next 14 days. Past days aren't offered.
- A band is a rule of thumb. It's built from working hours and a time zone, not from anyone's actual availability.
Frequently asked questions
By score, not headcount: coverage is half of it, length a quarter (counting up to three hours), and how civil the hour is in your own working day the last quarter. A crowded window at 3 AM for you loses to a smaller one at 10 AM.
The panel says there's no shared working time for that day rather than proposing something unworkable. That's the signal to split the difference deliberately. Rotate who takes the awkward hour, or record the meeting instead.
Not in this version. Your working day is one setting applied to everyone in your cast.
Today plus the next 14 days. That's enough to see across a clock change, which is when the arithmetic you memorized stops working.
There's no share button. Copy the window into your email and write it with its zone, and if the recipient is saved, let Use their time put it in theirs. A proposed time that carries a zone is one your reader can accept without doing arithmetic.
Because an overlap you can't attend isn't an overlap. Your own day is drawn with everyone else's, on your clock, so a window that looks generous on paper is visibly at 3 AM for you. The scoring takes the same view: a quarter of it is how reasonable the hour is in your working day.
Because it stops where the next person's day does. A window runs for as long as the same group stays inside working hours; when someone's day ends, the window ends with it, and a shorter one with different people may follow.
The timeline draws every day the same way, from working hours and time zones. It doesn't know about public holidays, so check those yourself for a meeting that matters.
For a method that works without any extension, read how to schedule meetings across time zones. Or see all Timehint features.