Before you pick a time
- List participants, city, and preferred working window.
- Check upcoming daylight saving events in the DST Planner.
- Confirm whether the meeting must happen live or can be async.
Finding a slot
- Open the Timezone planner, plug each city in, and set working hours.
- Note the overlap blocks highlighted in green; copy them into your document.
- Decide whether you will rotate the slot weekly/monthly to share discomfort.
Example: A dev sync across Austin, Cape Town, and Tokyo has only one hour of overlap. Rotate the meeting or split into two cohorts so nobody is always on the edge of their day.
Example 2: A quarterly roadmap review spans Toronto, Dublin, and Bangalore. The Timezone tool shows a 2-hour workable window when North America joins late evening, so rotate presenters and document who owns each quarter.
Communicate clearly
- Include the weekday, UTC time, and major city equivalents in the invite.
- Attach the Timezone screenshot to the calendar description.
- Post a reminder in chat 24 hours in advance with the local times for each team.
During the meeting
Keep the World Clock wallboard visible if multiple shifts need awareness. It helps facilitators empathize when someone joins at 22:00 their time.
After the meeting
- Send notes immediately so people joining outside their core hours can log off.
- Review the overlap once a quarter or when DST season hits.
- Archive obsolete invites so calendars do not accumulate ghost meetings in the wrong slots.
Escalation plan
Decide who owns last-minute changes. Assign a primary and backup host in different regions so cancellations or emergencies can be handled while one timezone sleeps. Store their contact info and preferred chat handles in the invite description. When issues arise, open the saved Timezone link to propose a new slot immediately instead of debating it in chat.
Run a quick retro
After a big launch or multi-week workshop, ask each region what worked and what hurt. Capture responses in a brief doc, note which slots were painful, and feed that back into the checklist. Updating the process is faster than rediscovering the same friction every quarter.
Try the tool
The Timezone and DST Planner combo covers 95% of scheduling scenarios. Keep World Clock pinned for shift visibility.
FAQ
- How many timezones are too many for one call?
- Once you span more than three continents, prefer async updates or two smaller calls. The overlap will be punishing for someone otherwise.
- Should I record the meeting?
- Yes when privacy allows. Pair the recording with written notes so people who skip the live call still get the action items quickly.
- What if DST changes mid-project?
- Re-run this checklist and announce the new slot as part of the project update. Treat DST like any other risk.