# How to Find the Best Meeting Time Across Time Zones > Find a meeting time across time zones: put everyone on one clock, find the overlap, handle days with no overlap, and avoid daylight saving traps. Published 26 September 2026 by The Daykite team · Scheduling · https://daykite.com/blog/best-meeting-time-across-time-zones ## The short answer Put every attendee's working hours on one clock (UTC is easiest), find where they overlap, and pick a time inside that window — ideally not the first or last hour of anyone's day. If there's no overlap, split the meeting into two, rotate who takes the late slot, or make it asynchronous. Always check daylight saving dates, because the gap between cities changes during the year. You need an hour with a colleague in London and a client in Tokyo, and you're in New York. You open your calendar, try 10:00, work out it's 15:00 in London — fine — and then 23:00 in Tokyo. Not fine. Try 19:00 and Tokyo is happy at 08:00 the next morning, but London is at midnight. Finding a good meeting time across time zones is a small puzzle, and it gets harder with every city you add. This guide gives you a method that works for any number of places, a worked example with real numbers, and what to do when there simply isn't a good time. ## Why cross-time-zone scheduling goes wrong Four things cause most of the trouble: - **Mental arithmetic.** "London is five hours ahead" is easy until you add a third city, or the meeting crosses midnight somewhere. - **Daylight saving time.** Countries change their clocks on different dates — and some don't change them at all — so the gap between two cities isn't fixed. - **Different working weeks.** Not everyone works Monday to Friday. In Saudi Arabia the weekend is Friday and Saturday, so a Friday meeting there is a weekend meeting. - **Default bias.** The person sending the invitation usually picks a time that suits them, and everyone else adjusts. Repeat that for a year and the same people always take the 21:00 calls. ## Step-by-step: finding the best time ### 1. List the cities, not the time zone names Write down where each person actually is: *New York, London, Tokyo*. Avoid abbreviations like EST or CST. EST is technically winter-only (in summer New York is on EDT), and CST can mean US Central Time or China Standard Time. City names are unambiguous; your tools will know which rules apply. ### 2. Write down everyone's working hours Usually 09:00–17:00, but ask. A colleague who does school pickup might be unavailable from 15:00, and someone else might happily start at 07:30. Real hours beat assumptions. ### 3. Put everyone on one clock Convert each person's working hours to a single reference time — UTC is the easiest because it never changes for daylight saving. Then draw them as bars on the same line. Suddenly the overlap (or the lack of one) is obvious. ### 4. Find the overlap The overlap is the stretch where every bar is covered. That's your shortlist. If it's several hours long, you have plenty of choice. If it's 30 minutes, you have one option. If it's empty, skip to the section on what to do when there's no overlap. ### 5. Pick a time inside the overlap — but not at its edges The first and last hour of someone's working day are the worst for meetings: at the start they're still catching up, and at the end they're tired and heading home. Aim for the middle of the overlap where you can. ### 6. Check the date against daylight saving changes If the meeting is in March, October or early November — or it repeats through those months — check whether any of the cities change their clocks in between. More on this below. ### 7. Send an invitation that shows everyone their own time A calendar invitation records one exact moment and shows each person their own local time, so the invite itself is safe. Where people get confused is the *text*. If you write "see you at 10", say whose 10: *10:00 New York / 15:00 London*. ## A worked example: New York, London and Tokyo Let's use real numbers. Say the meeting is on Tuesday, 6 October 2026, and everyone works 09:00–17:00 local time. On that date: - **New York** is on daylight saving time, 4 hours behind UTC (UTC−4). Its 09:00–17:00 is **13:00–21:00 UTC**. - **London** is on British Summer Time, 1 hour ahead of UTC (UTC+1). Its 09:00–17:00 is **08:00–16:00 UTC**. - **Tokyo** doesn't use daylight saving; it's 9 hours ahead (UTC+9). Its 09:00–17:00 is **00:00–08:00 UTC**. ![Three bars on one UTC clock: New York's working day from 13:00 to 21:00 UTC, London's from 08:00 to 16:00 UTC and Tokyo's from 00:00 to 08:00 UTC, with the New York and London overlap from 13:00 to 16:00 UTC highlighted](https://daykite.com/blog/best-meeting-time-across-time-zones/overlap-chart.webp "Working hours for all three cities on one clock. Only New York and London share any of them.") Put the bars side by side and the answer is clear: - **New York + London** overlap from 13:00 to 16:00 UTC — that's **09:00–12:00 in New York and 14:00–17:00 in London**. Good options: 10:00 New York / 15:00 London. - **London + Tokyo** don't overlap at all within 09:00–17:00. London starts work exactly when Tokyo stops. - **New York + Tokyo** don't overlap at all either. When New York starts at 09:00, it's already 22:00 in Tokyo. So there is no time that falls inside everyone's working day. That's common with three continents, and it's why the next section matters. You don't have to draw this by hand. The free [Meeting Time Finder](https://daykite.com/tools/meeting-time-finder) lays out every city's working hours side by side and ranks the times that work best for the group. ![The Daykite Meeting Time Finder comparing New York, London and Tokyo on 6 October 2026, showing each city's hours in a grid and the best-ranked meeting times](https://daykite.com/blog/best-meeting-time-across-time-zones/meeting-time-finder.webp "The Meeting Time Finder does the arithmetic for any set of cities.") ## When there's no good time for everyone When working hours don't overlap, you have four honest options. ### Choose the least-bad time, and say so For New York, London and Tokyo on our date, the two fairest slots are **07:00 or 08:00 in New York — 12:00 or 13:00 in London, 20:00 or 21:00 in Tokyo**. Either way, New York starts early, London gives up part of lunch, and Tokyo stays into the evening; the earlier slot is kinder to Tokyo, the later one to New York. That's a reasonable ask once in a while — especially if you acknowledge it in the invitation. ### Split it into two meetings Often the whole group doesn't need to be in one room. Hold **New York + London at 10:00 / 15:00**, and **London + Tokyo at 08:30 London / 16:30 Tokyo** — London starts half an hour early — with London carrying decisions between the two. Two short, well-timed meetings usually beat one painful one. ### Rotate the inconvenience For a recurring meeting, don't make the same person take the bad slot every week. Alternate between times so that each region takes its turn being early or late. Put the rotation in the meeting description so nobody has to argue for it. ### Make it asynchronous Many "meetings" are updates. Replace them with a shared document or a short recorded video, and keep live time for decisions and discussion. A team spread across 14 hours often works best with one live meeting a week and everything else written down. ## Daylight saving: the gap that moves Here's the trap that catches experienced schedulers: the gap between two cities changes during the year. New York and London are usually 5 hours apart. But the US and the UK change their clocks on different weekends. In 2026, the US moved its clocks forward on 8 March and the UK on 29 March; in the autumn the UK moves back on 25 October and the US on 1 November. For those weeks, the gap is **4 hours**, not 5. ![A 2026 timeline showing London five hours ahead of New York for most of the year, and four hours ahead from 8 to 28 March and from 25 to 31 October](https://daykite.com/blog/best-meeting-time-across-time-zones/dst-gap.webp "Hours London is ahead of New York on each day of 2026. The two short stretches are when only one country has changed its clocks.") That means a recurring meeting set at 09:00 New York time is 14:00 in London for most of the year, and **13:00** during those weeks — right on top of many people's lunch. Your calendar will show the correct time, but if the London attendee has something else at 13:00, you've just created a clash nobody planned. The southern hemisphere adds another twist, because its seasons are reversed. London and Sydney are 9 hours apart in the northern summer and 11 hours apart in the northern winter, with a few weeks at 10 hours each spring and autumn while only one of them has changed its clocks. A weekly London–Sydney meeting that works in July can be at a terrible time by November. > **Tip:** For recurring international meetings, set a reminder for the second week of March and the last week of October to check that the time still works for everyone. ## Common mistakes - **Scheduling in your own head.** Always check with a tool; arithmetic across three zones and a date line goes wrong easily. - **Forgetting the date changes too.** Tuesday evening in New York is Wednesday morning in Tokyo. "Let's meet Friday" can accidentally mean Saturday for someone. - **Using ambiguous abbreviations.** Write city names or UTC offsets instead of EST, CST or IST. - **Ignoring local weekends and holidays.** A Monday that's a public holiday in one country is just a Monday elsewhere. - **Always taking the convenient slot.** If the same people always meet at 21:00, they'll notice, even if they don't say so. ## Let your tools carry the load A few habits and tools remove most of the effort: - **Keep your own calendar in your own time zone**, and let invitations convert automatically. - **Use a booking page** for external meetings, so guests pick from your free times shown in *their* time zone — no arithmetic on either side. - **Protect your focus hours** so that when someone in another time zone books you, they can't land in the middle of your deep-work morning. (If you haven't set those up yet, start with [how to organize your calendar for a less stressful week](https://daykite.com/blog/how-to-organize-your-calendar), then plan your days with [time blocking](https://daykite.com/blog/what-is-time-blocking).) ## How Daykite helps Daykite's [booking page](https://daykite.com/docs/bookings/what-guests-see) shows your available times in each guest's own time zone, named above the list, so a client in Berlin sees Berlin times. [Find a time](https://daykite.com/docs/calendar/find-a-time) looks for a free window inside your working hours and leaves your focus time alone. And for quick checks, the free [Time Zone Converter](https://daykite.com/tools/time-zone-converter) and the [New York–London](https://daykite.com/tools/time-difference/new-york/london), [New York–Tokyo](https://daykite.com/tools/time-difference/new-york/tokyo) and [London–Tokyo](https://daykite.com/tools/time-difference/london/tokyo) pages show the current gap, this year's daylight saving dates and the working hours the cities share. ## Frequently asked questions ### What is the best time for a meeting between New York and London? Between 09:00 and 12:00 New York time, which is 14:00 to 17:00 in London for most of the year. 10:00 New York / 15:00 London sits comfortably in the middle. During the few weeks in March and late October when the gap is 4 hours, the same New York time is an hour earlier in London. ### What if there's no overlap in working hours? Pick the least inconvenient time and acknowledge it, split the meeting into two smaller ones with a shared set of notes, rotate who takes the early or late slot, or replace the meeting with written or recorded updates. ### How do I avoid daylight saving time mistakes? Schedule by city rather than by abbreviations like EST, let your calendar handle the conversion, and check recurring international meetings in March and late October, when the US, Europe and other regions change their clocks on different dates. ### Which time zone should a meeting invitation use? Create it in your own time zone; calendar apps convert it for each guest automatically. In the invitation text, write the time for the main locations, such as *10:00 New York / 15:00 London*, so nobody has to work it out. ### Is it fair to always meet during my working hours? Occasionally, yes. For recurring meetings, no — rotate the inconvenient slot between regions so the same people aren't always joining early in the morning or late at night.