Being based in Dubai, you’ll inadvertently have to work with different time zones. Combine the GMT + 4 time difference with the fact that our weekends are Friday/Saturday, working with suppliers can get a bit taxing.

Here are a few tools that have made my work life and setting up meetings a bit easier over the years.

Clock Widgets

Last year, when we launched Wally on Android, the PR launch meant 12 PR agents/agencies across the globe. To avoid having a meltdown when someone did respond to me quickly via email, I needed to know when which team was up. My ghetto solution was to build a dashboard of widgets on my MacBook. It takes a few minutes to setup but I still use it to plan my day.

TimeBie

I often get emails to suggest meeting times. And me being me, I prefer to share that information in local timezones. Timebie is great for this. Enter the timezone of your fellow meeting attendee and voila, you’ll get a match-up of timeslots that fit both your working hours.

Apple Calendar

If you’re heading off on a business trip and are trying to setup meetings in advance, it helps to visualize your calendar while in that time zone. This is especially important if you’re going to be in different cities with differing time zones (i.e. NYC, San Francisco). I setup Apple Calendar to have my work and personal calendars and then use the Time Zone tool on the top right to switch back and forth. If you have your manager in another time zone, it’s also a great way to see their calendar and schedule in meetings.

Any tools or tricks that you recommend for working with different time zones?