How to choose a time for a global study group

Finding a time for a global study group can feel impossible when one person is finishing class and another is waking up. A time that looks reasonable in your own city may land in the middle of the night somewhere else.

Compare everyone’s local time before sending an invite. The World Clock can help you see how a proposed meeting time falls in each participant’s city, so you can choose a slot that feels fair rather than convenient for just one person.

Compare local times before picking a slot

1. Open the World Clock and add or select a city for each study group member. Use the city where each person will join from, not just the country name, because some countries have more than one time zone.
2. Ask members what hours they can usually meet. For example, collect a weekday window such as 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. local time, and note any fixed classes, work shifts, or caregiving responsibilities.
3. Choose a possible meeting time in one city and compare the corresponding local times for everyone. Try several candidates, especially if the group spans North America, Europe, and Asia.
4. Check whether the group wants to meet once or regularly. For a recurring session, compare the dates when daylight saving time changes, since local meeting times can shift for some members.

Agree on the meeting length before you settle on a slot. A 45-minute session can fit into more people’s schedules than a two-hour session, and a shorter first meeting gives the group a chance to see whether the time works in practice.

Choose the fairest option

Everyone gets a reasonable daytime or evening hour

This is the easiest choice when members are spread across nearby time zones. Aim for a time when everyone is awake and not too close to the start or end of their day. Leave room for meals, travel, or a short break between classes.

One person would have to meet very early or very late

There may not be a perfect overlap. Compare how often each person would have an inconvenient hour, then rotate the meeting time if the group meets regularly. For example, alternate between a slot that favors students in the Americas and one that favors students in Asia.

The group spans distant regions

Consider splitting the group into two sessions or choosing a shorter shared check-in, then sharing notes or questions with members who cannot attend. A single fixed time may not be fair when some participants are separated by half a day or more.

A suggested time looks right but feels wrong

Confirm the date and each person’s local clock. A meeting listed as 7:00 p.m. in one city might be 2:00 a.m. the next day for someone elsewhere. The calendar date matters as much as the hour when you cross the International Date Line.

Use a real example to compare options

Suppose members join from New York, London, and Singapore. On a typical winter weekday, 2:00 p.m. in London is 9:00 a.m. in New York and 10:00 p.m. in Singapore. That may work for the New York and London students, but it is a late-night meeting for Singapore.

Moving the meeting earlier makes Singapore’s time more comfortable, but asks the New York member to join earlier in the morning. Moving it later favors New York and London while pushing Singapore’s meeting further into the night. Seeing all three local times makes this tradeoff clear, so the group can choose deliberately or rotate the inconvenience.

Use the example only as a starting point. Daylight saving changes can affect the difference between cities, and schedules vary from person to person. Compare the exact date you plan to meet instead of relying on a time difference you memorized months ago.

Check the date and share the time clearly

Daylight saving time is the seasonal clock change used in some places. Not every country observes it, and places that do may change clocks on different dates. For a few weeks each year, the gap between two cities can be different from what it was before the change.

When you send the invitation, include the date, the time zone or city, the meeting length, and a link to the online meeting. If the group meets repeatedly, say whether the time is fixed to one person’s local clock or intended to stay fixed in UTC. UTC is a shared time reference that does not change for daylight saving time, but members still need to convert it to their own local time.

After the first meeting, ask whether the slot was manageable for everyone and adjust it before the group settles into a routine.