AlchemyAlchemy — Monetize Iron Ideas
LongitudeLongitude

The best meeting times for US, Europe and Asia teams: the overlap, city by city

Which hours actually overlap between New York, San Francisco, London, Berlin, Mumbai, Singapore and Tokyo, in winter and summer, and what to do when nothing overlaps.

The best meeting times for US, Europe and Asia teams: the overlap, city by city

If your team spans the US, Europe and Asia, you already know the feeling: the only time that works for everyone is the time that works for no one. Before you settle for a 6am call, it helps to know exactly where the real overlap is.

Below are the shared working hours for common city pairs, assuming everyone works 9am to 5pm. We list winter and summer separately, because not every country changes its clocks.

US and Europe: the easy pair

The US East Coast and Western Europe share a few comfortable hours every morning in New York.

  • New York and London: 9am to 12pm in New York is 2pm to 5pm in London. 3 hours, all year.
  • New York and Berlin or Paris: 9am to 11am in New York is 3pm to 5pm in Berlin. 2 hours, all year.
  • San Francisco and London: San Francisco's 9am is London's 5pm. No overlap in a 9-to-5 day. If someone in San Francisco starts at 8am, you get one hour.

These pairs stay the same in summer, because the US and Europe both move their clocks. The exception is the few weeks each spring and autumn when one has changed and the other has not; we cover those in when your cross-time-zone meetings move.

Europe and Asia: the morning window

For Europe and Asia, the overlap sits in Europe's morning and Asia's afternoon.

  • London and Mumbai: 9am to 11:30am in London is 2:30pm to 5pm in Mumbai. 2.5 hours in winter, 3.5 hours in summer.
  • London and Singapore: London's 9am is Singapore's 5pm. No overlap in winter, 1 hour in summer (9am to 10am London).
  • Berlin and Tokyo: Berlin's 9am is Tokyo's 5pm. No overlap in winter, 1 hour in summer.

India, Singapore and Japan do not use daylight saving time, so these windows widen when Europe moves its clocks forward in March and shrink again in late October.

US and Asia: the hardest pair

Here, one side is almost always outside working hours.

  • San Francisco and Tokyo: 4pm to 5pm in San Francisco is 9am to 10am the next day in Tokyo. 1 hour in winter. In summer San Francisco's 5pm is Tokyo's 9am, so there is no overlap.
  • New York and Tokyo or Singapore: no overlap in a 9-to-5 day, in any season.
  • New York and Mumbai: no overlap in a 9-to-5 day.

For these pairs, someone has to start early or stay late. The fair approach is to take turns.

When all three regions need to meet

There is no hour when New York, London and Tokyo are all inside a 9-to-5 day. Your options:

  1. Rotate the pain. Alternate meeting times so the same people do not always take the 7am or 9pm slot.
  2. Split into two meetings. Hold one for the Americas and Europe and one for Europe and Asia, with someone in Europe joining both.
  3. Go async. Share updates in writing or as recorded video, and keep live meetings for decisions.
  4. Shift the edges, not the middle. A 7:30am start in San Francisco or a 6pm finish in London often opens a window that a 9-to-5 grid hides.

How to find your own overlap fast

Your team's cities and hours will not match a table exactly. Name each clock after the person, not the city, so you can see whose day it is at a glance. Then check a visual timeline of working hours rather than doing the arithmetic each time.

Longitude does this with its Overlap Finder, which shows everyone's working hours on one timeline. The free version compares two time zones; Pro compares up to six at once, adds the World Map with a live day and night line, and unlocks unlimited clocks, after a 7-day free trial. Every widget size is free, so you can keep your team's clocks on your Home Screen. There is no account, and your clocks sync through iCloud.

For a general method, read how to schedule across time zones without doing the math.

← All Longitude articlesAbout Longitude →