WorldClockTools.

Meeting optimizer

Find the best meeting time

Add your teammates' cities, pick a date range and meeting length, and get a ranked list of candidate slots. The optimizer balances working-hours overlap with fairness — so one person isn't always on the 6am call.

Team

  • →
  • →
  • →

Meeting

Top 8 candidate slots

  1. 1Thu Nov 5 · 14:00 UTC2/3 in working hours
    • New YorkThu 09:00
    • LondonThu 14:00
    • TokyoThu 23:00
  2. 2Fri Nov 6 · 14:00 UTC2/3 in working hours
    • New YorkFri 09:00
    • LondonFri 14:00
    • TokyoFri 23:00
  3. 3Sat Nov 7 · 14:00 UTC2/3 in working hours
    • New YorkSat 09:00
    • LondonSat 14:00
    • TokyoSat 23:00
  4. 4Sun Nov 8 · 14:00 UTC2/3 in working hours
    • New YorkSun 09:00
    • LondonSun 14:00
    • TokyoSun 23:00
  5. 5Mon Nov 9 · 14:00 UTC2/3 in working hours
    • New YorkMon 09:00
    • LondonMon 14:00
    • TokyoMon 23:00
  6. 6Tue Nov 10 · 14:00 UTC2/3 in working hours
    • New YorkTue 09:00
    • LondonTue 14:00
    • TokyoTue 23:00
  7. 7Wed Nov 11 · 14:00 UTC2/3 in working hours
    • New YorkWed 09:00
    • LondonWed 14:00
    • TokyoWed 23:00
  8. 8Thu Nov 5 · 14:30 UTC2/3 in working hours
    • New YorkThu 09:30
    • LondonThu 14:30
    • TokyoThu 23:30

Slots are evaluated in 15-minute increments. Working hours default to 9–18 local and can be adjusted per person. Sleep hours (22:00–07:00) are weighted as the most painful.

How to find an overlapping meeting window across time zones

Add your team's cities and working hours, set a date range and meeting length, then pick from a ranked list of candidate slots and export the one you choose.

  1. Add your teammates and their time zones

    Add a row for each teammate with their name and time zone. Adjust the working-hours start and end for anyone whose schedule differs from the 9-to-18 default.

  2. Set the date range and meeting length

    Pick the From and To dates to search within, then choose a meeting duration of 15, 30, 45, 60, or 90 minutes.

  3. Review the ranked candidate slots

    The optimizer evaluates the range in 15-minute increments and lists the top candidate slots, ranked by how many teammates fall inside working hours and how fairly the inconvenience is spread across the team.

  4. Export the slot you choose

    For the slot you pick, use Add to calendar to download a DST-correct .ics file, or use Copy link to share a URL that reopens the same slot for everyone on the team.

Questions

FAQ

How does the optimizer rank candidate slots?
Each 15-minute slot in your date range gets two scores: a meeting score (how many participants are inside their working hours, default 9 to 18 local) and a fairness score (how evenly the pain is distributed if anyone is out-of-hours). The composite score subtracts a fairness penalty from the working-hours total, so a slot where everyone is in 9-to-18 ranks above one that hits everyone but with two people at 6am.
Why do you weight sleep hours so heavily?
Asking someone to take a meeting between 22:00 and 07:00 is much more disruptive than asking them to start an hour early or stay an hour late. The optimizer treats those hours as roughly 10x more painful than edge-of-workday hours, which prevents a slot like "3am for one person, 9am for everyone else" from quietly outranking a fairer choice.
Are DST transitions handled correctly?
Yes. Each candidate slot is evaluated using the IANA timezone rules in effect for that specific moment, so a slot picked the week before DST starts in London resolves to a different local time than the same UTC moment two weeks later. There is no fixed UTC-offset shortcut anywhere in the math.
What's in the .ics file I download?
A standard RFC 5545 calendar file with one VEVENT in UTC, plus a description listing each participant's local time at that moment. It opens in Google Calendar, Outlook, Apple Calendar, and any other compliant client. The event is single-instance — for recurring meetings, use the Recurring Meeting Drift tool.
How is this different from the Meeting Planner?
The Meeting Planner is a visual timeline you scrub through interactively to see overlaps. This optimizer is the opposite workflow — you specify the constraints and get a ranked list of suggestions. Use Meeting Planner for exploration; use this for "give me three good options for next week."

Related tools