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Google Calendar with Multiple Time Zones (2025): Step-by-Step + Team Playbook

Learn how to add multiple time zones to Google Calendar, show the World Clock, avoid DST meeting drift, and embed Timezoners boards for seamless remote collaboration. —

Google Calendar with Multiple Time Zones (2025): Step-by-Step + Team Playbook

Scheduling across time zones shouldn't feel like detective work. This guide shows you how to set up Google Calendar for multi-zone sanity, then layers on a remote-team playbook and a handy way to drop a shareable Timezoners overlap board into your event descriptions.

Add secondary / World Clock time zones

There are two built-in ways to see more than one time zone in Google Calendar (web):

  1. Display a secondary time zone (column next to your primary)
    • Open Google Calendar → Settings → Time Zone → tick Display secondary time zone → choose the zone.
  2. Show the World Clock (sidebar list of cities/zones)
    • Open Google Calendar → Settings → World clock → tick Show world clock → Add time zone for each location you care about.

Tip: When creating or editing an event, you can also set a specific time zone per event (look for Time zone next to the start/end time).

Color-coding and labels that prevent mistakes

Color is your quickest visual cue when you're juggling PST, CET, and IST.

  • Per-calendar colors: in the left sidebar under My calendars, hover a calendar → More (⋮) → pick a color (or set a custom one).
  • Event color labels: open an event → Edit → next to the calendar name, choose a color or create a label; you can also right-click an event to assign a label.
  • Appearance tweaks: Settings → Appearance lets you switch color sets and density for better contrast on desktop.

Simple scheme that works:

  • Blue = in-hours for your home time zone
  • Green = fair-overlap meetings (everyone within stated working hours)
  • Amber = outside someone's hours (rotation needed)
  • Red = avoid / escalate approval

Fix recurring meetings after DST

Twice a year, clocks move and recurring invites drift for someone, somewhere. A few principles keep you out of trouble:

  1. Anchor the series to the host's local time zone when you create it.
  2. Announce a DST check-in the week before US/EU switches.
  3. If the series shifted, edit the series → adjust the start time in the host's zone → send update.
  4. Document your rule in the description so newcomers know which clock the series follows.

FYI: Google Calendar converts events using UTC under the hood; old events created before a time-zone rule change can display incorrectly. When in doubt, recreate the series after DST with the intended anchor zone.

Embed a Timezoners board in your event descriptions

Static times lie; live boards don't. Timezoners boards update as seasons and clocks change.

How to add it:

  1. Create or open your overlap plan in Timezoners and hit Share to copy its link.
  2. In Google Calendar, open the event (or series) → Description → paste the link with a short label, e.g.:
 Agenda
 - Sprint planning   30 min
 - Blockers   10 min
 Timezones
 - Live overlap board: https://app.timezoners.com/boards/your-board-id
  1. Add a one-liner like: "This series stays anchored to 10:00 San Francisco (PDT/PST). If DST affects you, check the board."

Troubleshooting

"I can't see two columns of times."
Make sure you enabled Display secondary time zone. The World clock adds a sidebar list, not a second column.

"Mobile won't show multiple time zones."
The secondary time-zone column and World Clock are configured on desktop. Events still display at the correct local time on mobile once set.

"Our weekly call moved an hour for someone after DST."
Confirm which clock the series should follow. Edit the series in the host's zone and restate the rule in the description.

"It's hard to tell at a glance what's in-hours."
Use calendar/event colors and a simple legend (Blue = in-hours; Amber = after-hours). Adjust Appearance → Color set / Density for clarity.

Remote-team playbook (copy/paste)

  • Set Working Hours & Location so colleagues see when you're bookable and where you are (office/home/remote).
  • Define "fair windows." Agree on acceptable overlap (e.g., 2 hours/day), color it green, and rotate any amber/red meetings quarterly.
  • Make meeting descriptions useful. Include the Timezoners board, decision owner, and recording link template.
  • Run a DST pre-flight. The week before US/EU clock changes, confirm the anchor clock and resend the invite if needed.
  • Link your team's norms. Add your team's etiquette doc to every recurring series.

Where to go next

TL;DR

  • Use secondary time zone for a two-column view; turn on World Clock for a quick sidebar.
  • Color-code by in-hours / fair / after-hours and use event labels.
  • Before DST, decide which clock a series follows; document it and link a Timezoners board so nobody guesses.
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