Timezone debt: the meetings you schedule today that will break next month

You schedule a recurring meeting for 10am EST every Tuesday. It works perfectly—your teammate in London joins at 3pm their time, and your colleague in San Francisco joins at 7am theirs. Everyone's happy.

Then March arrives. Daylight saving time shifts clocks in the US, and suddenly your 10am EST meeting is 2pm in London (still fine) but 6am in San Francisco (not fine). Your overlap window just shrank, and you didn't notice until someone misses the meeting.

This is timezone debt: meetings and processes that work today but will break when DST changes or team composition shifts. It's invisible until it becomes a problem.

Why timezone debt accumulates

Most teams set meeting times once and forget them. They don't account for:

• DST shifts that change offsets twice a year
• Team changes that add or remove timezones
• Working hour changes as people adjust their schedules
• Holiday differences that create unexpected gaps

The meeting that worked in October might break in March. The overlap window that fit everyone last quarter might exclude someone new this quarter. Timezone debt compounds silently until someone pays the price—usually the person working odd hours.

How to spot timezone debt

Check your recurring meetings twice a year: once before the US spring DST change (usually March) and once before the fall change (usually November). For each meeting, ask:

1. Does everyone still have working hours during this time?
   The person who joined at 7am might have changed their schedule. The new teammate might be in a timezone that makes this time unreasonable.

2. Has the overlap window shrunk?
   DST changes can shift your overlap by an hour. What was a comfortable 3-hour window might now be a tight 2-hour window.

3. Is the burden still fair?
   If one person is always joining at 6am or 10pm, that's not sustainable. Rotate the pain or find a better time.

The easiest way to check: create a shared board on timezoners.com with your current team and working hours. You'll see the overlap instantly, and you can spot when a meeting time falls outside reasonable hours for someone.

The fix: schedule with overlap, not fixed times

Instead of picking a time and hoping it works, start with the overlap window. Find the hours where everyone is actually available, then schedule within that window. When DST changes or the team changes, you adjust the meeting time to stay within the overlap—not the other way around.

This means:

• Your meeting time might shift by an hour twice a year (to stay in the overlap)
• You check the overlap quarterly, not just when someone complains
• You make the overlap visible to the whole team so everyone knows the constraints

The early warning system

Set a calendar reminder for the week before DST changes (early March and early November). That week, review your recurring meetings and check the overlap. If a meeting time no longer fits, reschedule it proactively. Don't wait for someone to miss a meeting or complain about odd hours.

Better yet: use a tool that shows your overlap live and updates automatically as DST changes. When you can see the window shrinking, you can adjust before it breaks.

When timezone debt becomes culture debt

Timezone debt isn't just about broken meetings. It's about fairness. When one person consistently works odd hours to accommodate others, that's a culture problem disguised as a scheduling problem.

The solution: make the burden visible. If someone is joining at 6am or 10pm, acknowledge it. Rotate the pain. Or find a time that works for everyone, even if it means the meeting is shorter or less frequent.

The habit that prevents debt

The teams that avoid timezone debt check their overlap regularly. They don't set it and forget it—they treat it as a living thing that needs maintenance.

Start this week: list your recurring meetings, check the overlap for each one, and fix any that fall outside reasonable hours. Then set a reminder to do it again in three months. The 15 minutes you spend now will save hours of frustration later.

Timezone debt is invisible until it isn't. But with a shared view of your team's availability, you can spot it before it costs you. Create your board, check the overlap, and adjust proactively. Your future self (and your teammates) will thank you.