How to agree on a time across timezones
If you have to communicate a time to people in different timezones, use the following format: Wednesday 5PM UTC, November 4.
Why?
UTC stands for Coordinated Universal Time. It is not a timezone, therefore it is not subject to daylight-savings time.
UTC is normally displayed as 24-hour time. This can be ambiguous to people from timezones where AM/PM is preferred over 24-hour time. AM/PM is unambiguous for everyone.
Including the day of the week and the date helps with avoiding misunderstandings about dates and days.
How do I know what the time is for me?
Use one of these tools:
I also recommend you schedule your appointments by inviting people through Google Calendar, which does the hard work for you.
StatusClock for Mac OSX gives you a second clock in the menubar that you can set to UTC:
Who does this?
Our team at GitLab is all over the world. We struggle with this every day.
If you like this, follow me on Twitter: @Jobvo.
