Stop guessing: a no-spreadsheet timezone planner
Spreadsheets freeze, drift, and hide overlap. A live, shareable timeline shows you exactly when to meet no sign‑in, no formulas. —
If your timezone plan lives in a spreadsheet, it's probably already out of date. The moment someone changes their hours or a clock shifts for daylight saving, the neat grid you built turns into wishful thinking. Worse, a sheet hides the very thing you care about: the unmistakable visual of "we can all meet here."
A better approach starts with a simple, live timeline. Create a shared board, add teammates with their typical working windows, and let the timeline settle into the real world you work in. You'll notice something reassuring the first time you select a subset of names: the overlap either exists, or it doesn't. There's no mental math, just a clear signal that helps you decide whether to schedule live time or move the conversation into writing.
Planning stops being a guessing game when the artifact matches your team's habits. That means capturing early birds and night owls as they actually are, not as the policy document imagines them. It means giving the board a name that communicates purpose "Customer Success: US–EU Overlap" and placing the link where it will be found daily: the Slack channel topic, the team README, the onboarding checklist. If a new person joins, add them the same day. If London slips into summer time, nudge the hours and move on. The tool stays true because it's simple enough to update in seconds.
Once the overlap is visible, separate time into two lanes. Use the shared window for decisions, onboarding moments, and anything that gathers energy from live discussion. Let status updates, handoffs, and specs flow in writing. When the team knows the difference, meetings shrink and the calendar gets quieter. You'll also notice that "one more quick call" stops stealing from someone's evening.
A useful practice is to declare a "Decision Hour" a few days each week the one place where yes/no choices are made and blockers are unblocked. People come prepared because the ritual exists; they don't need a calendar full of placeholders to feel progress. If questions spill outside the window, point back to the board and the next Decision Hour. It's not bureaucracy; it's mercy for everyone's time.
All of this only works if the link is trivially shareable. No accounts, no permissions dance, just a URL that anyone can open and understand. That's why a dedicated planner beats a spreadsheet every time. The point isn't to track time; it's to reclaim it.
Ditch the formulas. Make the overlap obvious, keep it updated as the seasons and the team change, and let the simple artifact drive better habits. Create a board today, share it once, and stop guessing tomorrow.