Efficiently Manage Multiple Time Zones With These Tech Tools

In today's increasingly globalized and remote work world, the ability to navigate multiple time zones is a critical skill that many workers must have. Nicole Nguyen, writing for The Wall Street Journal, outlines several tech tools that can help remote workers and frequent travelers efficiently manage multiple time zones.

Executive Summary:

• Navigating multiple time zones is a critical skill for remote workers, frequent travelers, and those co-workers in other states or countries.
• Time conversion tools, such as World Time Buddy, are essential to help manage time differences across different locations.
• Scheduling tools, such as Gmail and Outlook, can help send messages when they are most likely to be read, while features in Slack can enable team members to see each other’s local times.

To convert time zones on a desktop, Nguyen recommends using World Time Buddy, which is a clean and minimalistic world-clock website. Users can add different cities, and the site stacks hour-by-hour views of each location. Users can also overlay events from their calendars on top of the timelines, making it easier to find a time to meet. If a user creates a free account, the site can also be used to quickly create an event in Google Calendar, Outlook, or iCal. For mobile users, World Time Buddy offers an app for iOS and Android.

Google Calendar also offers useful settings to manage time zones. Under Language and Region, users can enable "Display secondary time zone" to see their hour-by-hour agenda in two time zones. The "Show world clock" setting will display times for various locations in the left column, with the sun and moon denoting day and night. Users can also set working hours in their local time, which will alert people who try to invite them to a meeting outside of that time frame.

For messaging scheduling, Nguyen recommends using Gmail, Outlook, and Slack.

When composing a message in Gmail, users can schedule an email by selecting a date and time from the down arrow beside the Send button. For mobile users, the email can be scheduled by tapping the three dots at the top right corner. 

On Outlook, Delivery Options allows users to specify a date and time for "Do not deliver before" when composing an email. 

In Slack, users can schedule a message by clicking the down arrow beside the send icon on a desktop or long-pressing the send icon on mobile, and the recipient's and user's time are also provided by Slack.

Another useful Slack feature is Team Time Zone, a paid integration that provides a dashboard of each team member's time zone. Users can click on someone's profile to see their local time. Additionally, making others aware of their own time zone can be helpful, and users can put it in their email signature along with a link to a Google results page of the current time.

These tech tools can assist remote workers, travelers, and individuals with co-workers in diverse locations in efficiently managing their communication and time across multiple time zones.

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Keywords: time zones, remote work, travel, scheduling, communication, tools.

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