Why use a meeting planner?
Scheduling across time zones manually is error-prone. A planner finds overlapping work hours automatically.
When your team spans multiple continents, finding a meeting time that works for everyone is challenging. Manual calculation requires considering each person's time zone, work hours, and potential DST transitions.
A meeting planner automates this by analyzing each participant's availability and finding windows where everyone can meet - ideally during work hours.
The key insight is that there are often "golden hours" where everyone is in their normal work day, but these windows may be narrow (sometimes just 1-2 hours).
- Team member in New York (EST): Works 9 AM - 6 PM
- Team member in London (GMT/BST): Works 9 AM - 6 PM
- Team member in Mumbai (IST): Works 9 AM - 6 PM
- Common overlap: Limited to early morning NY / afternoon London / evening Mumbai
Try it: Find meeting times
Interactive Meeting Planner
Add participants from different time zones and find the best meeting times.
Try it now →A meeting planner finds those narrow overlap windows automatically, saving hours of back-and-forth.
Understanding golden hours
Golden hours are time slots where ALL participants are within their normal work hours.
The planner categorizes meeting slots into three types based on how many participants are in their work hours:
• Golden Hours (✨): Everyone is in their work hours. This is ideal.
• Extended Hours (⚡): Most are in work hours, but some are in early morning or evening (extended hours).
• Compromise Times (🤝): At least one person is outside both work and extended hours, requiring personal time.
Sleep hours are always blocked - the planner never suggests times when someone would be sleeping.
- New York 9:00 AM / London 2:00 PM / Mumbai 6:30 PM
- → Golden if everyone is still in work hours at 6:30 PM Mumbai
- → Extended if Mumbai considers this after hours but acceptable
- → Compromise if Mumbai is off but available
Try it: See slot categories
Interactive Meeting Planner
Add participants from different time zones and find the best meeting times.
Try it now →Always start with golden hours. Fall back to extended or compromise only if no golden slots exist.
Setting up participants
Each participant needs a name, time zone, work hours, and sleep hours.
For accurate results, configure each participant with:
• Name: A friendly identifier (e.g., "London Office" or "Sarah")
• Time Zone: Their local time zone (auto-detects for you)
• Work Hours: When they're fully available (default 9 AM - 6 PM)
• Sleep Hours: Times that should never be scheduled (default 11 PM - 7 AM)
You can also set weekend preferences - by default, Saturday and Sunday are excluded from search.
- Name: "Tokyo Office"
- Time Zone: Asia/Tokyo (UTC+09:00)
- Work Hours: 09:00 - 18:00
- Sleep Hours: 23:00 - 07:00
Try it: Configure a participant
Interactive Meeting Planner
Add participants from different time zones and find the best meeting times.
Try it now →Accurate work and sleep hours are crucial for finding realistic meeting windows.
Reading the results
Results show available slots grouped by quality, with local times for each participant.
After adding at least 2 participants, the planner shows available meeting slots sorted by quality:
1. Golden Hours appear first (if any exist)
2. Extended Hours show next (optional based on settings)
3. Compromise Times show if no better options exist
Each slot card shows the exact local time for every participant, along with their status (work/extended/personal).
The "Best match" badge indicates the highest-scoring slot based on how many participants are in their optimal hours.
- ✨ Golden hour (Best match)
- Alice: 09:00 - 10:00 (Wed) - work hours
- Bob: 14:00 - 15:00 (Wed) - work hours
- Chen: 21:00 - 22:00 (Wed) - extended hours
Try it: Interpret results
Interactive Meeting Planner
Add participants from different time zones and find the best meeting times.
Try it now →Check each participant's local time to ensure the slot works for everyone.
Understanding the timeline
The timeline view shows each participant's day visually, making overlaps easy to spot.
Switch to Timeline view to see a 24-hour visualization:
• Green bars: Work hours
• Blue bars: Personal/flexible time
• Gray bars: Sleep hours (blocked)
The bottom "Overlap" row shows where all participants' work hours intersect:
• Green: Golden overlap (all in work hours)
• Yellow: Extended overlap
• Blue: Personal time overlap
• Gray: Unavailable (someone sleeping)
- Look for green segments in the Overlap row
- Those are your golden meeting windows
- Narrow green segments = limited golden hours
Try it: Explore timeline view
Interactive Meeting Planner
Add participants from different time zones and find the best meeting times.
Try it now →The timeline gives you a quick visual sense of how much overlap exists between participants.
DST considerations
The planner uses IANA time zones and handles DST automatically, but recurring meetings need monitoring.
The Meeting Planner uses Luxon with IANA time zones (like America/New_York) which automatically account for DST transitions.
For one-off meetings, you don't need to worry - the planner calculates the correct time for the date you select.
For recurring meetings, DST transitions can shift schedules:
• A weekly 9 AM meeting may become 8 AM or 10 AM relative to other zones
• Different countries transition on different dates
• Some zones don't observe DST at all
- March 8: US shifts to DST (spring forward)
- March 29: UK shifts to BST (3 weeks later)
- During this gap, US-UK time difference is 1 hour different than usual
Try it: Test around DST dates
Interactive Meeting Planner
Add participants from different time zones and find the best meeting times.
Try it now →Re-check meeting times after DST transitions, especially for recurring meetings.
Tips for global teams
Best practices for scheduling across continents.
1. Rotate the burden: Don't always make the same person take early/late meetings
2. Record meetings: When live attendance is difficult, record sessions for async viewers
3. Use async first: Consider if the meeting could be a video message or document instead
4. Book further ahead: Global meetings need more planning due to limited overlap windows
5. Be explicit about time zones: Always include time zone when sharing times (e.g., "3 PM EST")
6. Factor in buffer time: Don't schedule back-to-back across zones
- Week 1: 9 AM EST (early for West Coast, late for Asia)
- Week 2: 5 PM EST (evening for US, morning for Asia)
- Alternate to share the inconvenience
Try it: Plan a fair rotation
Interactive Meeting Planner
Add participants from different time zones and find the best meeting times.
Try it now →Good scheduling is as much about fairness and communication as finding the right time.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many participants can I add?▼
You can add up to 10 participants. For larger meetings, consider using a subset of key attendees who represent different time zones.
What if there are no golden hours?▼
Enable "Allow extended hours" in settings to include early morning/evening slots. If still no results, try "Allow weekends" or check if work hours can be adjusted.
Does it handle Daylight Saving Time?▼
Yes, the planner uses IANA time zones (like America/New_York) which include DST rules. Times are calculated correctly for the specific date you select.
Can I save participants for reuse?▼
Currently, you need to re-add participants each session. We recommend bookmarking common setups or using the PDF export to save configurations.
How do I handle half-hour time zones?▼
The planner supports all standard time zones including +05:30 (India), +05:45 (Nepal), +09:30 (Australia Central). Just select the correct IANA zone.
Can I plan recurring meetings?▼
The planner finds slots for a specific date. For recurring meetings, re-run it monthly, especially around DST transitions when overlap windows shift.
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