How to Schedule Meetings Across Time Zones
Scheduling across time zones goes wrong when people convert times by hand. A short, repeatable process avoids most of the mistakes.
Most scheduling mistakes across time zones come from converting times by hand, or from assuming a time difference that isn’t actually fixed. A short process avoids most of it.
A simple process
- List every participant’s city (not just their time zone abbreviation — see why abbreviations like IST or CST are ambiguous).
- Set each person’s working hours, if they differ from a standard 9-to-5.
- Find the overlap where everyone is within working hours — or as close to it as possible.
- Double-check the date: a meeting near midnight for one participant may fall on a different calendar day for another.
- Share the proposed time as a link that shows each person their own local time, rather than a single time you hope they’ll convert correctly.
When no time works perfectly for everyone, it’s more useful to see which slot is least bad — and why — than to be told there’s simply "no good time." A planner that scores every slot and explains the trade-off gives you something to actually decide with.