Meeting Planner

The meeting planner shows a 24-hour grid for each city you add. Each column is one hour of the day. Green cells indicate that hour falls within the working hours you set (default 9am–6pm local time for that city). The overlap indicator at the top turns green when all cities are in working hours simultaneously — that is your best meeting window. Click any column to see the exact local time for each participant at that moment.

This is one of the most challenging combinations. New York (UTC−5/−4) and London (UTC+0/+1) overlap from 9am–12pm NY / 2pm–5pm London. But Singapore (UTC+8) is at 10pm–1am during that window — outside business hours. There is no time when all three are simultaneously in standard business hours. A compromise: 8am–9am New York = 1pm–2pm London = 9pm–10pm Singapore. Someone always has to accept an early or late call in this combination.

DST shifts clocks forward in spring and back in autumn, changing UTC offsets for affected regions. The US, EU, and Australia observe DST but at different dates. When the US but not the EU has changed clocks (late March to early April, and in November), the New York–London offset temporarily changes from 5h to 4h or 6h. This planner automatically accounts for the current DST status of every city, so the grid always shows correct local times.

US East Coast to Tokyo: no true overlap in standard hours (14h apart). Best compromise: 7am–9am New York = 8pm–10pm Tokyo, or 8pm–9pm New York = 9am–10am Tokyo. US West Coast to Singapore: 8am Los Angeles = 11pm Singapore (no overlap). Many US–Asia teams rotate meeting times to share the burden. A 7am Pacific call equals 10pm Singapore — asking the Asia team to stay late. A 5pm Pacific call equals 8am Singapore next day — asking the US team to start early.

Western Europe has excellent overlap: London, Paris, Berlin, Amsterdam, and Zurich all differ by at most 1 hour, providing the same 8-hour work window with virtually any slot from 9am–5pm working for everyone. Eastern Europe (Bucharest, Athens, Istanbul) adds 1–2 more hours. London + US East Coast (New York, Toronto) have a 5-hour overlap from 9am–12pm Eastern / 2pm–5pm London. London + Dubai (4h apart) have good working-hours overlap from 9am–5pm Dubai = 5am–1pm London, making 9am–1pm London ideal.

For recurring meetings, always invite using calendar software that sends invites in the recipient's local time. Never say "Monday at 3pm" without specifying the timezone. Best practices: (1) Send calendar invites rather than scheduling links when possible. (2) Rotate uncomfortable meeting times among team members to share the burden fairly. (3) Use the "follow the sun" model for large global teams: have each region own calls during their own business hours, with brief handoffs at shift changes. (4) Keep standing meetings consistent — change the time only for DST shifts, not every week.

Most countries use whole-hour UTC offsets, but some chose non-standard ones for geographic or political reasons. India (UTC+5:30) and Sri Lanka (UTC+5:30) use 30-minute offsets so the clock midday better matches solar noon. Nepal (UTC+5:45) is the world's only 45-minute offset. Australia has half-hour states: Adelaide (UTC+9:30) and Darwin (UTC+9:30). Iran uses UTC+3:30. When scheduling with these regions, remember that meeting times must account for these fractional hours, which is why this planner uses the full IANA timezone database.

The International Date Line (IDL) at 180° longitude is where the calendar date changes. Crossing westward advances the date; crossing eastward moves it back. This matters for scheduling: when it is Monday 9am in New York, it is already Tuesday 11pm in Sydney. A Monday meeting invitation sent from New York may show as Tuesday in Sydney. Good calendar tools handle this automatically. When confirming meetings manually, always include the full date (day, month, year) and timezone, not just the time.

When a team spans all continents (Americas, Europe, Asia, Australia), no single time works for everyone in standard business hours. Proven strategies: (1) Rotating meeting times — alternate between times that are convenient for different regions. (2) Asynchronous first — use recorded video or written updates instead of live meetings where possible. (3) Overlap core hours — identify the 2–4 hours per week where the most critical pairings overlap and protect those for essential meetings. (4) Core hours policy — each location commits to being available 10am–2pm local time, maximizing overlap potential.

Working hours (9am–5pm or 9am–6pm) are standard for office workers in most Western countries. Business hours can vary: Japan often works 9am–6pm or later. Middle Eastern countries may have Thursday–Friday weekends (Friday is the Islamic day of rest) with Sunday–Thursday as the work week. Some countries take long lunch breaks (Mediterranean countries, Latin America). China and India have growing tech sectors with later hours. When scheduling with international teams, verify the local work week structure — a meeting set for "Friday afternoon" may fall on a weekend in the UAE.