To plan a meeting across time zones, convert everyone’s working day into one reference time (usually UTC or the organiser’s local time), look for the hours where the working days overlap, and then pick a slot that shares the inconvenience fairly. The traps are the date line, clock changes that happen on different weekends in different countries, and countries that never change their clocks.
Note: time zone offsets and daylight saving dates are set by governments and can change. The examples here use the rules in force for 2027 as the House of Calculator converter applies them. Check an official source for countries whose rules you are unsure of, especially for meetings far in the future.
Why time zone planning goes wrong
Most scheduling mistakes come from three habits:
- Doing the sum in your head with a fixed gap. “New York is five hours behind” is true for most of the year, but not all of it.
- Forgetting that the date changes. A 2 pm Tuesday meeting in London is already Wednesday morning in Sydney.
- Using the wrong city as a label. “Eastern time” means different offsets in winter and summer, and a “GMT” invitation in July may be an hour out for the UK, which is on British Summer Time.
The fix is to treat one time as the master, usually UTC for an international team, and convert from it. Time zones explained: how to convert times without mistakes explains offsets, UTC and daylight saving in more detail, and the Time Zone Converter does the conversion with daylight saving included for the date you choose.
Step 1: List the cities and their working hours
Write down every participant’s city and normal working hours. Do not assume 9 to 5: some teams work 8 to 4, some 10 to 6, and some people have school-run constraints. For a quick plan, assume 9:00 to 17:00 and mark flexible hours separately.
A good habit is to set three bands for each person:
- Core hours, such as 9:00 to 17:00, where a meeting is fine.
- Stretch hours, such as 8:00 to 9:00 or 17:00 to 19:00, which are acceptable occasionally.
- Unsociable hours, such as before 7:00 or after 21:00, which should be rare and shared fairly.
Step 2: Convert to a common time
The table below shows what 12:00 noon in London is in other cities. The first column is in January (London on GMT) and the second in July (London on British Summer Time). All times are from the House of Calculator converter.
| City | 12:00 London, 12 January 2027 | 12:00 London, 14 July 2027 |
|---|---|---|
| Lagos | 13:00 | 12:00 |
| Paris and central Europe | 13:00 | 13:00 |
| Athens and eastern Europe | 14:00 | 14:00 |
| Johannesburg | 14:00 | 13:00 |
| Dubai | 16:00 | 15:00 |
| India | 17:30 | 16:30 |
| Singapore | 20:00 | 19:00 |
| Tokyo | 21:00 | 20:00 |
| Sydney | 23:00 | 21:00 |
| Auckland | 01:00 (next day) | 23:00 |
| New York | 07:00 | 07:00 |
| Chicago | 06:00 | 06:00 |
| Los Angeles | 04:00 | 04:00 |
Several things stand out. Central and eastern Europe keep a constant gap with London because they change their clocks on the same weekends. The gap with Dubai, India, Singapore and Tokyo shrinks by an hour in summer because those places do not change their clocks while the UK does. Lagos matches London in July but is an hour ahead in January. For Sydney and Auckland, the southern hemisphere follows a different seasonal calendar, so the gap with London varies through the year.
Step 3: Find the overlap
Overlap is where everyone’s working hours coincide. With a 9:00 to 17:00 day in both places, the overlap for London and each city is:
| Pair | Overlap in London time, January | Overlap in London time, July |
|---|---|---|
| London and Paris | 09:00 to 16:00 (7 hours; Paris is 1 hour ahead) | 09:00 to 16:00 (7 hours) |
| London and New York | 14:00 to 17:00 (3 hours) | 14:00 to 17:00 (3 hours) |
| London and Chicago | 15:00 to 17:00 (2 hours) | 15:00 to 17:00 (2 hours) |
| London and Los Angeles | None with 9 to 5 days | None |
| London and Dubai | 09:00 to 13:00 (4 hours) | 09:00 to 14:00 (5 hours) |
| London and India | 09:00 to 11:30 (2.5 hours) | 09:00 to 12:30 (3.5 hours) |
| London and Singapore | None | 09:00 to 10:00 (1 hour) |
| London and Tokyo | None | None |
| London and Sydney | None | None |
These come from subtracting each city’s offset. For example, London and India in January: India is 5.5 hours ahead, so its 17:00 finish is 11:30 in London. London’s day starts at 09:00, so the overlap is 09:00 to 11:30, or 2.5 hours. In July, India is 4.5 hours ahead of London, so 17:00 in India is 12:30 in London, giving 3.5 hours.
London and New York work well for 9 to 5 teams: New York’s 09:00 is 14:00 in London, so the shared window is the London afternoon and New York morning. The same ratio holds in summer because both change clocks, with the exceptions described below. London and Los Angeles have no overlap on a strict 9 to 5, so the meeting has to be at the edge of someone’s day: for example 16:00 London is 08:00 in Los Angeles.
London, Tokyo and Sydney have no overlap at all in normal hours. In that case, someone needs to move.
Step 4: Share the pain fairly
When there is no overlap, the shape of the day matters more than the exact hour. A few approaches that work:
- Rotate the meeting time. Alternate between an early slot for one side and a late slot for the other, so the burden is shared.
- Move the meeting to the edge of the day. A meeting at 16:00 London (08:00 Los Angeles) is early for one side but still sensible.
- Reduce live meetings. Record the call, share notes in writing, and ask for comments by a deadline. Many decisions do not need a live discussion.
- Use a short window. A 25 or 45-minute meeting is easier to place in a narrow overlap.
- Avoid extremes. Try not to ask the same person to take calls before 7:00 or after 21:00 every week.
For a three-way call among London, New York and India in January, one slot that works is 14:00 London, which is 09:00 in New York and 19:30 in India. That is a normal start for New York, a late afternoon in London and a late evening in India. It is tolerable once a month, but not every week. In the converter, London 14:00 to New York 09:00 matches the five-hour gap.
The date line problem
When the gap is large, the date changes. London on a Tuesday at 14:00 is:
- 06:00 Tuesday in Los Angeles
- 19:30 Tuesday in India
- 22:00 Tuesday in Singapore
- 01:00 Wednesday in Sydney
- 03:00 Wednesday in Auckland
Write the date in the invitation for each location, not just the time. “Tuesday 14:00 London / Wednesday 01:00 Sydney” removes ambiguity. Many calendar tools convert times automatically, but if you are sending the details in an email, spell them out.
The weeks when clocks change on different dates
This is the trap that catches most regular meetings. The UK changes its clocks on the last Sunday of March and October. The United States changes on the second Sunday of March and the first Sunday of November. So for a few weeks each year the gap between London and New York is four hours instead of five.
Take a weekly meeting that is 14:00 on Tuesdays in London. Here is what happens in March 2027, with the US clocks going forward on Sunday 14 March and the UK clocks going forward on Sunday 28 March:
| Tuesday | London time | New York time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 9 March | 14:00 | 09:00 | 5 hours |
| 16 March | 14:00 | 10:00 | 4 hours |
| 23 March | 14:00 | 10:00 | 4 hours |
| 30 March | 14:00 | 09:00 | 5 hours |
If the meeting is fixed in London time, New York will see it move to 10:00 for two weeks. If the meeting is fixed in New York time, London will see it move to 13:00 for those two weeks. Decide which side keeps the clock time, and say so in the invitation. The same thing happens in autumn: the UK moves back on 31 October 2027 and the US on 7 November 2027, so on 2 November 2027 the gap is again four hours.
Calendar apps usually handle this if the meeting is set in a named time zone (such as London) rather than a fixed offset. Even so, check the invitations in the weeks around the changes, because one participant’s calendar may be set differently from the organiser’s.
Holidays and weekends
A time that works can still land on a bank holiday somewhere. Check the calendars for each country before you pick a date. Public holidays and weekends differ: a Friday is a normal working day in the UK but part of the weekend in some Middle Eastern countries, and Sunday is a working day in a few. Do not rely on guesswork. UK bank holidays and how to count working days explains how to count working days, and for other countries, check an official source. If you plan around week numbers, Week numbers and ISO weeks explained explains why “week 1” can differ from one organisation to another.
A checklist for the invitation
- State the time in a named time zone, such as “14:00 London time”.
- List the local time for each participant, with the date.
- Mark the weeks that may differ because of clock changes.
- Say who has to be live and who can read the notes.
- Add the length of the meeting and a start and end time in each zone.
- Check public holidays in each country.
- Offer a recording or written summary for those outside their hours.
Try the calculator
Choose a date, a start time and two cities in the Time Zone Converter to see the equivalent time, the difference in hours and the same moment in other major cities.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best time for a meeting between London and New York?
Between 14:00 and 17:00 London time, which is 09:00 to 12:00 in New York. That window holds for most of the year, but for a couple of weeks in March and late October to early November the gap is four hours instead of five, so check the dates.
Is there a good time for a meeting between the UK and Australia?
Not with standard 9 to 5 days. London 09:00 is 20:00 in Sydney in January and 18:00 in July, so it is already the end of the day in Australia. One side usually has to start early or work late, so rotate the burden.
Why is my meeting an hour out in March?
The United States changes its clocks on the second Sunday of March, two weeks before the UK. For those two weeks, the gap between London and New York is four hours, not five.
Which countries do not change their clocks?
India, Dubai, Singapore and Tokyo do not change their clocks, so their gap with London varies by an hour between winter and summer. For other countries, check an official source.
Should I schedule in UTC?
For teams across many regions, UTC is a clean reference because it never changes. But most people think in their local time, so give both the UTC time and the local time for each participant.