Meeting Planner
Find the best time to meet across multiple time zones. Green = business hours (9am–6pm), yellow = early/late, red = nighttime.
Your Time — enter your timezone and time to see it in each city
Best Meeting Times - All cities in business hours (9am–6pm)
| UTC Time |
🇦🇪 Dubai
Asia/Dubai
|
🇬🇧 London
Europe/London
|
🇯🇵 Tokyo
Asia/Tokyo
|
|---|---|---|---|
| 00:00 UTC | 04:00 | 01:00 | 09:00 |
| 01:00 UTC | 05:00 | 02:00 | 10:00 |
| 02:00 UTC | 06:00 | 03:00 | 11:00 |
| 03:00 UTC | 07:00 | 04:00 | 12:00 |
| 04:00 UTC | 08:00 | 05:00 | 13:00 |
| 05:00 UTC | 09:00 | 06:00 | 14:00 |
| 06:00 UTC | 10:00 | 07:00 | 15:00 |
| 07:00 UTC | 11:00 | 08:00 | 16:00 |
| 08:00 UTC | 12:00 | 09:00 | 17:00 |
| 09:00 UTC | 13:00 | 10:00 | 18:00 |
| 10:00 UTC | 14:00 | 11:00 | 19:00 |
| 11:00 UTC | 15:00 | 12:00 | 20:00 |
| 12:00 UTC | 16:00 | 13:00 | 21:00 |
| 13:00 UTC | 17:00 | 14:00 | 22:00 |
| 14:00 UTC | 18:00 | 15:00 | 23:00 |
| 15:00 UTC | 19:00 | 16:00 | 00:00 |
| 16:00 UTC | 20:00 | 17:00 | 01:00 |
| 17:00 UTC | 21:00 | 18:00 | 02:00 |
| 18:00 UTC | 22:00 | 19:00 | 03:00 |
| 19:00 UTC | 23:00 | 20:00 | 04:00 |
| 20:00 UTC | 00:00 | 21:00 | 05:00 |
| 21:00 UTC | 01:00 | 22:00 | 06:00 |
| 22:00 UTC | 02:00 | 23:00 | 07:00 |
| 23:00 UTC | 03:00 | 00:00 | 08:00 |
Frequently Asked Questions
How does the meeting planner work?
Enter city slugs (e.g. new-york, london, tokyo) separated by commas. The planner shows a 24-hour UTC grid with each city's local time. Green rows are ideal - All cities are in business hours. Yellow rows are acceptable with early or late hours for some participants.
What counts as "business hours"?
Business hours are defined as 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM local time. Early/late is 6:00 AM to 9:00 AM or 6:00 PM to 10:00 PM. Outside those windows is considered nighttime.
How to Schedule Across Time Zones
Coordinating global meetings takes more than just looking up local times - It requires deliberate habits that respect every participant's working day. Here are five proven practices used by distributed teams at companies of all sizes.
-
1.
Always anchor to UTC
When setting a meeting time in a calendar invite or Slack message, always include the UTC time alongside local times. UTC never changes for daylight saving, so it is the one reference that is unambiguous for everyone, regardless of location or the time of year. Use the Time Zone Converter to translate any UTC time into local times for each participant.
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2.
Use color-coded overlap grids
Visual grids like the one above make the "green zone" - The window where all cities are in business hours - Immediately obvious. This removes the mental load of converting times on the fly and reduces scheduling errors caused by DST transitions.
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3.
Avoid before 8 am and after 7 pm local time
Scheduling a recurring meeting at 7 am or 8 pm for one team signals that their time is less valued. Even if someone agrees to it, chronic early or late meetings erode morale and increase attrition in remote teams over time. When no ideal overlap exists, compensate with other practices.
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4.
Rotate meeting times fairly
If there is no perfect overlap, rotate the inconvenience. Alternate which team gets the early or late slot each week or month. Documenting the rotation policy makes it feel fair and institutional rather than arbitrary.
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5.
Send calendar invites with the time zone stated explicitly
Calendar applications handle time zone conversion automatically, but errors occur when invites are sent without a canonical time zone attached. Always use your calendar's native time zone field, and include a note in the invite body such as "10:00 am New York / 15:00 UTC / 23:00 Singapore."
Best and Worst Times for Global Meetings
Regional overlap analysis for the most common international team combinations.
A 2:00 pm UTC slot (9 am New York, 2 pm London, 3 pm Berlin) gives all parties comfortable morning-to-afternoon hours. This is the most naturally compatible global pairing. During US daylight saving, New York shifts to UTC-4, pushing its share of the window slightly earlier.
An 8:00 am UTC slot (8 am London, 9 am Berlin, 4 pm Singapore, 5 pm Tokyo) places Asia teams at the end of their workday. Acceptable for occasional meetings but taxing as a recurring slot. Moving to 7:00 am UTC strains London instead.
The gap between New York (UTC-5) and Tokyo (UTC+9) is 14 hours in winter, 13 hours in summer. Any real-time overlap requires one team to meet at or before 7 am or after 9 pm. Async-first communication - Recorded video updates, shared documents, Loom-style walkthroughs - Is strongly preferred for US-Asia collaboration.
Sydney (UTC+10/+11) and Los Angeles (UTC-8/-7) are roughly 18 to 19 hours apart. Every possible meeting time falls in the middle of the night for at least one party. Teams in these zones should plan for fully asynchronous workflows with scheduled overlap no more than once per week, accepting that someone will join outside normal hours.
Remote Work Time Zone Statistics
of remote workers report that time zone confusion has caused at least one significant meeting delay or missed deadline in the past year.
is the average number of time zones spanned by a modern remote engineering team, according to distributed work research surveys.
reduction in timezone-related friction reported by teams that adopt async-first communication practices - Written updates, recorded walkthroughs, shared docs.
More Questions
What does the color coding mean?
Green cells mean that city is in standard business hours (9 am to 6 pm local time). Yellow cells indicate early or late hours - Acceptable but not ideal. Red cells mean it is nighttime in that city (generally before 6 am or after 10 pm). A fully green row means every selected city is in business hours at that UTC time.
How do I share my meeting grid?
Click "Save to Dashboard" after selecting a time slot. This creates a short 5-character link (e.g. /tools/meeting-planner/AB3XY) that you can send to anyone — no account needed to open it. You can also include a Zoom link and a label so recipients know exactly what the meeting is about.
What is considered "business hours"?
Business hours are defined as 9:00 am to 6:00 pm local time in each city's own time zone, accounting for any daylight saving offset in effect on the selected date. The definition is intentionally standard - If your team uses different hours, treat yellow rows as potential candidates and use your judgment.
Can I plan for more than 6 zones?
Yes - Add as many city slugs as you need, separated by commas. The grid will add a column for each city. That said, the more zones you add, the less likely a green overlap exists. For very large global teams, consider splitting the team into regional pods with designated liaisons who attend cross-regional syncs.
What if my team works non-standard hours?
The planner uses the universal 9 am – 6 pm definition of business hours. If your team's working window is different - For example, a support team operating 6 am to 3 pm - Treat the color coding as a guide rather than a rule. The UTC time column lets you mentally map any custom schedule against the grid.