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Scheduling global team meetings can be a hassle. Everyone operates at different times, and you have to find a way to plan meetings without needing half your team to be awake in the middle of the night.
The good news is that it doesn’t have to be this way.
In this article, we discuss how to easily plan international meetings that suit everyone’s schedules — no matter where they are in the world.
plain
1Let's call Monday 4 p.m. What time zone are you in?
First things first: why are there time zones?
The earth’s rotation is what makes day and night, right? Well, time zones provide a consistent and practical way for us to coordinate and organize our time in line with this rotation.
Jump straight to a key chapter
In other words, time zone boundaries standardize timekeeping across the world. Without them, the earth wouldn’t function in the same way.
However, it can make it tricky to plan international meetings. More on that in a bit.
What's wrong with time zones?
Wikipedia tells us what time zones do, but stops short of explaining why they don't make sense:
"A time zone is an area which observes a uniform standard time for legal, commercial, and social purposes. Time zones tend to follow the boundaries of countries and their subdivisions instead of strictly following longitude, because it is convenient for areas in close commercial or other communication to keep the same time.”
The concept of time zones was introduced by the Italian mathematician Quirico Filopanti in his book Miranda! in 1858. He also proposed a universal time to be used in astronomy and telegraphy.
plain
1Apologies for missing the call, just realized you're in PST. Can we reschedule?
By about 1900, almost all inhabited places on Earth had adopted one or another standard time zone, but only some of these used an hourly offset from Greenwich Meantime (GMT). It took many decades before all time zones were based on some "standard offset" from GMT and Coordinated Universal Time (UTC).
Today, there are 37 different local times in use.
37. THIRTY-SEVEN. THIRTY. SEVEN. Not 24, not 12, not 48. 37.
As if this weren't a mess on its own, enter Daylight Saving Time (DST), the practice of advancing clocks during warmer months so that darkness falls later each day according to the clock. DST was initially introduced in 1895 by George Hudson.
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1If time zones are hard now, what happens when we get to Mars?
The insanity of it all
If you're reading this, there's a high chance your work is impacted by the inconvenience of time-zone systems, either because you have to build/work with systems that rely on it or because you have a lot of meetings with people in different states/countries/continents.
Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
plain
1Let's call at GMT+7.4^23 - EST+3.27/8.
If we analyze the primary motivation to follow time zones...
Time zones tend to follow the boundaries of countries and their subdivisions instead of strictly following the degrees of longitude, because it’s convenient for areas in close commercial or other communication to keep the same time.
In 1858, this made sense. Most business meetings were conducted in the same time zone, so most people perceived time as a static thing.
However, 162 years later, this isn't always necessary. The world is wide open. It's easy to travel and to communicate, and physical barriers are (almost) no more. Yet we still use time zones to schedule meetings across the world.
Isn't it time for something better?
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Introducing UTC
Quirico Filopanti also proposed a universal time to be used in astronomy and telegraphy, which we call UTC.
plain
1Gremlins can't eat after midnight?! What if they travel to other time zones?!
UTC is the primary time standard by which the world regulates clocks and time. It’s within about one second of mean solar time and isn’t adjusted for Daylight Saving Time. It’s essentially a successor to GMT.
Advantages of using UTC as your one-true time zone include:
No need to google other time zones. You immediately know the time difference from where you stand to UTC, and that's it.
Not affected by Daylight Saving Time. This advantage speaks for itself.
No more need to ask people where they are. You can focus on finding availability quickly and easily.
You can add it to your calendar by default or use it as a secondary time. Most calendar solutions support this.
You can be pedantic about it. Like I'm doing now.
Disadvantages are slim:
You don't get to brag about where you live with every meeting invitation.
You can't use the time zone excuse to explain why you missed an important meeting.
plain
1UTC time zone is best time zone.
Why you should use the UTC model
When you use the UTC model, you always refer to the UTC time zone when scheduling things, even if you're not in it. The only thing you need to know is how far away from UTC you are, and that's it, forever.
This model offers a simple and effective solution for more civilized days. With a shared standard, finding a time to meet is dramatically faster than outdated models across multiple time zones.
Don’t believe us? Let's take a step back and look at UTC from a scientific perspective.
Problem: four people, all working remotely, want to schedule a meeting.
Without UTC, everyone on this call must know the time zone specifics of everyone else.
Nowadays, when this happens, you deal with a nightmare sequence of frustration:
1. Emailing back and forth to find out when everyone is awake and available to call
2. Googling:
4PM in CST
6PM in EAT
2AM IST
2AM IST TO CEST
etc.
3. Eventually realizing there are three people on a call waiting for the fourth, who thinks the meeting doesn't start for an hour.
Ten rejected calendar invitations later, the meeting actually happens. Wasn't that fun?
How can you incorporate UTC into your business?
Most calendar apps/services allow you to have a secondary time zone, so you can set it up as such to make your life even simpler.
All that is left is to find a time when everyone is available to meet. You always know what time it is, freeing you and your team to focus on what matters.
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TL;DR
Use UTC as your main time zone to schedule calls.
Using UTC saves you time, emails, and missed meetings, not to mention a lot of money in regained productivity.
UTC is respectful and doesn't force people to google the time zone where you live.
Why wait? Head to your calendar right now and convert to the One True Time Zone. Your colleagues, clients, partners, and family will thank you for it.
FAQs about time zones
Take a look at the answers to some commonly asked questions about time zones.
Why are time zones based on GMT?
GMT dates back to the late 19th century when the majority of the world’s commerce relied on sea charts, which used Greenwich as the Prime Meridian. From 1884 until 1972, GMT was the international standard for time. It’s since been replaced by UTC.
Which country has the most time zones?
Believe it or not, France has the most time zones of any country in the world. When you include all the territories that France owns, there are 12 different time zones in total (or 13 if you count the territory that France has claimed in Antarctica). Take a look at the full list of time zones here.
Which countries change their time?
Various countries across Europe and North America, as well as Paraguay, Chile, Cuba, Haiti, the Levant, New Zealand, and some parts of Australia, change their time to practice daylight savings. Check out a full list here: Which countries change the clock?
How do you schedule a meeting with multiple time zones?
That’s simple — use UTC! This international standard makes it easy to plan meetings and calls with colleagues, no matter where they are in the world.
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