Times below use typical offsets; daylight saving shifts them by an hour for parts of the year — always confirm against current local times before sending the invite.
US East Coast ↔ Europe: the easy one
New York to London is about 5 hours; to Berlin/Paris about 6. There's a genuine shared window every day:
| New York | London | Berlin | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sweet spot | 9:00–12:00 | 14:00–17:00 | 15:00–18:00 |
Morning for the US, afternoon for Europe — comfortable for everyone. If you can hold your transatlantic meetings only in this window, do that and never think about it again.
US West Coast ↔ Europe: one honest hour
San Francisco to London is about 8 hours. The strict 9–17 overlap is a single hour: 9:00 SF = 17:00 London. Realistically, someone flexes: Europe stays until 18:00, or the West Coast starts at 8:00. Recurring calls here belong at 8:00–9:00 Pacific / 16:00–17:00 UK — and nowhere else, or one side is doing evenings.
Europe ↔ India: mornings for Europe
India (UTC+5:30) is 3.5–4.5 hours ahead of Central Europe. European mornings work well: 9:00–12:00 Berlin = 12:30–15:30 Mumbai. Note the half-hour offset — a 9:00 Berlin call is 12:30 in Mumbai, not 12:00. Plan in 15-minute steps, not whole hours.
Europe ↔ East Asia: early Europe, late Asia
Singapore and China are 6–7 hours ahead of Central Europe; Tokyo 7–8. The window is Europe's early morning: 8:00–10:00 Berlin = 15:00–17:00 Singapore = 16:00–18:00 Tokyo. Anything after 11:00 in Europe pushes Asia past the end of their day.
US ↔ Asia: there is no window
New York to Singapore is 12–13 hours; San Francisco to Tokyo 16–17. There is no shared working-hours overlap — pretending otherwise just hides who's suffering. Your options, in order of preference:
- Go async by default. Recorded updates, written decisions, docs with comments. Save live calls for what genuinely needs them.
- US evening = Asia morning. 18:00–20:00 Pacific = 9:00–11:00 (next day) in Singapore; 10:00–12:00 in Tokyo. Least bad for a weekly sync.
- US early morning = Asia evening. 7:00–8:00 Eastern = 19:00–20:00 Singapore. Workable occasionally.
- Rotate. Whatever you pick, alternate who takes the off-hours slot — see our scheduling guide on rotation fairness.
All three regions at once
The only slot that touches all three continents without waking anyone at 3am is roughly 7:00–8:00 New York = 12:00–13:00 London = 20:00–21:00 Singapore — early for the US East Coast, lunch for Europe, evening for Asia (and effectively impossible for the US West Coast). Companies that run truly global all-hands usually record one session and run two, twelve hours apart.
Make the windows visible instead of memorizing them
Every number above shifts twice a year with daylight saving, and by half-hours for India. Rather than memorizing tables, keep the cities in your menu bar and drag a time slider: GlobalTimeZones shows each city's time and a color-coded availability status as you scrub through the day in 15-minute steps — the overlap windows above literally appear as rows of green dots. Try it in the interactive demo.