The Ultimate Guide to Cross-Timezone Meetings: How to Schedule International Calls Without Losing Your Mind

So you need to schedule a meeting between New York, London, and Singapore. Good luck.

I've been on both ends of this nightmare. The 6 AM call where I showed up half-asleep and contributed nothing. The 11 PM "quick sync" that dragged on for an hour while my family waited for dinner. And the worst one—a recurring standup that was 2 PM for me but 4 AM for my teammate in Sydney. He eventually quit. Not because of the meeting, but it probably didn't help.

Here's what I've learned about scheduling across time zones without destroying everyone's sleep schedule—or your working relationships.

The Math Isn't That Hard (The People Part Is)

Let's get the obvious out of the way. Finding overlapping hours is just math. New York is UTC-5, London is UTC+0, Tokyo is UTC+9. Add, subtract, done.

The real problem is that "overlapping working hours" often means someone's 8 AM and someone else's 8 PM. Technically that's overlap. Practically, it's asking people to give up their personal time.

Here's a quick reference for common routes:

Route	Time Difference	Realistic Overlap
US East Coast ↔ Western Europe	5-6 hours	9 AM - 12 PM EST works for both
US West Coast ↔ UK	8 hours	Very limited, usually early AM or late PM
Europe ↔ East Asia	7-9 hours	Early morning Europe or late evening Asia
US ↔ India	10-12 hours	Almost none during business hours
US ↔ Australia	14-17 hours	One side is always outside work hours

For the US-India case, someone is always taking a hit. For US-Australia, the date itself changes—when it's Monday afternoon in New York, it's already Tuesday morning in Sydney.

The Golden Rule: Rotate the Pain

The single most important thing I've learned: don't make the same people sacrifice every time.

If you have a recurring meeting between San Francisco and Berlin, alternate the timing. One week at 8 AM Pacific (4 PM Berlin), the next at 5 PM Pacific (1 AM Berlin—I know, but stick with me).

Actually, here's a better approach. Set three rotating slots:

1. Early US / Late Europe: 7 AM Pacific (3 PM London, 4 PM Berlin)
2. Standard US / Evening Europe: 10 AM Pacific (6 PM London, 7 PM Berlin)
3. Late US / Early Europe: 5 PM Pacific (9 AM London next day—wait, that doesn't work)

Okay, some combinations just don't have three good options. The point is: spread the inconvenience. Track who's taken the worst slots recently. Keep it fair.

One team I worked with used a simple rule: whoever schedules the meeting takes the worst time. It made people think twice about whether they actually needed a meeting at all.

Finding Overlap: The Practical Approach

Stop trying to do timezone math in your head. Use a timezone converter that shows you overlapping business hours visually. Most tools will highlight when multiple cities are in their typical 9-to-5 window.

Here's my process:

1. List all locations that need to attend live (not everyone needs to be there live—more on that later)
2. Identify the "golden hours" where the most people are in reasonable working hours
3. Prioritize the people who matter most for that specific meeting
4. Accept that someone might need to attend outside normal hours, and rotate who that is

For a US-Europe-Asia trifecta, the brutal truth: there is no time that's convenient for everyone. Your options are:

• Early morning US (6-8 AM EST) = afternoon Europe = evening Asia
• Late US (8-10 PM EST) = early morning Europe = morning Asia

Neither is great. Pick based on who needs to contribute most, or split into two meetings with someone bridging them.

Async-First: The Real Solution

Here's a thought that might sound obvious once you hear it: maybe don't have the meeting.

I'm not being glib. About 80% of the "meetings" I've scheduled across time zones could have been an email, a Slack thread, or a Loom video. The forced real-time requirement often comes from habit, not necessity.

Questions to ask before scheduling an international call:

• Does this need real-time discussion? Status updates don't. Brainstorming might.
• Could I record a video instead? A 10-minute video that someone watches at their convenience beats a 30-minute call at 6 AM.
• Can we use a shared doc? Async collaboration on a Google Doc often produces better thinking than a rushed call.
• Who actually needs to be live? Maybe only two people need to meet, and they can update the others afterward.

When you do need real-time interaction—for relationship building, complex discussions, or urgent decisions—make it count. Prepare an agenda. Keep it short. Respect that someone might be calling from their bedroom at midnight.

Watch Out for Daylight Saving Time

This catches everyone at least once.

The US and Europe change clocks on different dates. For a few weeks in spring and fall, your carefully planned "9 AM New York / 2 PM London" meeting is suddenly off by an hour. New York stays at 9 AM, but London shows 3 PM.

Some places don't observe DST at all—Arizona, most of Asia, and pretty much everywhere near the equator. So the offset between Phoenix and Los Angeles changes twice a year, even though they're in the same country.

Here's what to do:

• Always specify the timezone explicitly: "Tuesday 2 PM Eastern Time (ET)" not just "2 PM"
• Use calendar invites: They handle DST transitions automatically
• Double-check a week before and after DST transitions: That's when things break
• Use a tool that shows you the actual time in each location, like our world clock

And for the love of productivity, never say "CST" without specifying which one. Central Standard Time (US) and China Standard Time are 14 hours apart.

Practical Tips That Actually Help

Block your "bad" hours. If 6-8 AM is your protected time, block it on your calendar. Make people find another slot.

Create a "timezone map" for your team. A simple doc showing each person's location, typical hours, and preferred meeting windows saves repeated conversations.

Use calendar apps that show multiple time zones. Google Calendar lets you add secondary time zones. It takes two minutes to set up and saves endless mental math.

Set a default "meeting timezone" for recurring meetings. Pick one timezone as the anchor so there's no confusion about whose local time the invite shows.

Record everything. Even if everyone attends live, the recording helps people in bad time zones who were half-asleep, and it creates a searchable artifact.

Keep cross-timezone meetings under 45 minutes. People at 7 AM or 9 PM have limited patience. Get to the point.

Tools That Make This Easier

There are dozens of timezone tools. Here are the ones I actually use:

• Datetime.app: Quick timezone conversion without the clutter. Shows you overlapping hours visually.
• World Time Buddy: Good for comparing multiple zones side by side.
• Calendly or Cal.com: Let people book times that work for both of you automatically.
• Google Calendar's "Find a Time" feature: Shows availability across your organization.

The tool matters less than the habit. Pick one, learn it, use it every time you schedule across borders.

The Bottom Line

Cross-timezone scheduling isn't a problem you solve once. It's an ongoing negotiation between people in different parts of the world, each with their own constraints, sleep schedules, and lives outside work.

The best teams I've worked with treat timezone fairness like they treat other resources—tracked, discussed, and actively balanced. The worst teams let it be someone else's problem, usually the most junior person or whoever is least likely to push back.

So before you send that invite for your "quick sync," check what time it'll be for everyone. Ask yourself if it really needs to be live. And if it does, make sure you're not always asking the same people to show up at midnight.

Your colleagues in different time zones will thank you. Or at least, they won't quietly resent you—which in international collaboration, counts as a win.

References

1. Managing Time Zones in a Global Remote Team - Deel
2. Meeting Scheduling Across Time Zones Guide - SimpleTool
3. Working Across Different Time Zones: Best Practices & Tools - We Work Remotely
4. 15 Tips for Scheduling Across Time Zones - Smartsheet
5. Navigating Time Zone Overlap: Strategies for Global Success - Trio