Office guide

How to Use Time Zone Meeting Planner

A time zone meeting planner compares working hours on a specific date using IANA time zones. The date matters because daylight-saving rules can shift offsets independently.

Open the Time Zone Meeting Planner

What to prepare

A few reliable inputs make the first result easier to review.

  • The proposed meeting date and search window
  • Meeting duration
  • Each participant’s IANA time zone and local workday

How to Use Time Zone Meeting Planner

  1. Enter the meeting date, search start and end, and duration
  2. Add each IANA time zone with local workday start and end
  3. Find meeting windows and compare the resulting local times
  4. Confirm the chosen time with participants and send an invitation containing the timezone

Worked example

A New York and London overlap differs around the weeks when their daylight-saving changes do not align. Using America/New_York and Europe/London on the actual date avoids a fixed-offset mistake.

Review the result

Check that the proposed interval fits the entire meeting duration, not only its start. Consider holidays, lunch, accessibility needs, and rotating inconvenience for recurring meetings.

Practical tips

  • Use city-based IANA zones instead of abbreviations
  • Recalculate every occurrence near clock changes
  • Show local times in the invitation

Common mistakes to avoid

  • Using EST or GMT as year-round labels
  • Assuming today’s offset applies next month
  • Finding an overlap that ends before the meeting does

Build it in your browser

The free Time Zone Meeting Planner processes entries locally in your browser. Review the generated draft against source information and any policy that applies before sharing it.

Use the Time Zone Meeting Planner