Danbee’s pain-free guide to working across time zones
Working across time zones isn’t always convenient, but following these best practices can help you create a smooth and easy experience for everyone.
World map showing standard time zones and country names
Working with people I admire and telling their weird and wonderful stories is the most exciting part about running my own business. My clients are from all over the world, which means I get to share all sorts of stories and create a richer and more global picture of the world.
But that doesn’t mean that this is what you should do, too — so here’s my first piece of advice:
1. Decide whether you actually want to work with clients outside your time zone
When you work for yourself, you get to do whatever the hell you want to do.
You do not have to work with people outside your time zone. You don’t even have to work with people in your time zone. You get to choose. So do what you want.
Either way, I recommend making a conscious decision because this clarity will help you see what’s important to you (and what isn’t), helping you make better decisions down the line.
The rest of this post assumes you’re at least mildly interested in working with clients across the world!
2. Acknowledge other time zones
Announce scheduled group event times in multiple time zones.
I genuinely believe that the world would be a better place if only, each time we scheduled an event, we all asked ourselves:
Is this event intended for a global audience?
If so, what time is this event going to take place for people in other parts of the world?
Instead of saying: This workshop is happening today at 4 pm ET.
Say this: This workshop is happening on Thursday at 4 pm ET, which is 9 pm UK, Friday 1.30 am in India, and 4 am in Singapore.
(In the process of planning an announcement like this, you might even feel inspired to run multiple sessions of your event at different times so that more people can participate live.)
The point isn’t to accommodate everyone’s needs at your expense.
The point is to acknowledge the impact that your decisions have on your audience, who are scattered all around the world.
It’s really easy to figure out what time it is in other parts of the world. Just google “time in seoul” to see what time it is where I am right now. World Time Buddy is also a great free tool.
You can be more inclusive and help more people with just a little extra effort.
Specify both “your time” and “my time” for 1-on-1 appointments.
Instead of saying: Can we talk at 4 pm?
Say this: Can we talk at 4 pm my time, which is… 4 am your time? Never mind. Can we do 7 pm my time, 7 am your time?
Or better yet: Can we talk at 7 am your time (7 pm my time)?
And yes, ask your client where they’re based and figure out your time difference before suggesting appointment times.
3. Set your personal communication policy
Having a clear policy about how I communicate with my clients makes me feel happier, calmer, and more productive.
This is my personal communication policy:
I respond to all client messages within 2 days.
All calls with clients and business friends are booked through my scheduler at least 3 days in advance.
I’m available for calls between 9 am and 6 pm, 2 days a week.
These rules work for me because they let me maintain control over my time and energy.
I don’t have to rush my responses just because several hours have passed since a client sent me an email in the middle of my night. This also means I get to make sure all my responses are well thought-out and easy to understand.
Calls don’t catch me off-guard even when they get scheduled outside my normal work hours because I always have a couple of days to mentally prepare for them.
When someone suggests a specific date and time for a call, it’s easy for me to decide whether or not I’m available. I love connecting with people over calls, but do find them draining and need to limit not only the number of calls I take per day but also the number of days in a week that I have calls.
The beauty of having a policy is that there’s a “default setting.” This way, you don’t have to go through the same decision making process over and over again — but if you do want to make an exception, you totally can. For me, an example of an exception would be taking a 7 am call to record an interview for a podcast that I’m super excited to be a guest on.
4. Use online tools to manage 1-on-1 calls in your calendar
Use an appointment scheduler or send a calendar invite.
Do not rely on your client or yourself to get time differences right doing it manually.
I generally ask clients to book a time in my calendar using my scheduling link for 2 reasons:
They can see my availability in their local time zone (avoiding email ping-pong).
Once they’ve booked an appointment, they can add it to their calendar and see it in their local time zone (no one needs to convert time zones manually).
When I agree to chat with someone without using a scheduler, I always ask them to send me a calendar invite so that we’re looking at the same calendar event in our respective calendars (instead of manually adding an event in my calendar that no one else can see or confirm).
Keep track of public holidays in other countries.
This is a bonus “nice to have” that’s easy and helps you put yourself in your clients’ shoes. For example, if it’s a public holiday where they are, they might take the day off and not respond to your email until the day after. Not everyone uses an automated out of office response.
I use these Google calendars to subscribe to a few different options under “regional holidays”.
5. During calls, acknowledge the time difference
Here are a few easy things you can say to open up the conversation.
“Good morning,” if it’s their morning, “Good evening,” if it’s their evening.
“Thanks so much for being flexible with your time,” i.e. for talking to me earlier or later in the day than you might talk to someone who’s in your time zone.
“Remind me where you’re based again?”
Similarly, you can say any of these to end of the conversation.
“Have a great day,” or “Good night!”
“Thanks again for chatting with me so early/late in your day.”
6. Beware of time zone gotchas
In computer programming, gotchas are quirks in software that you see when things are working correctly, but feel counterintuitive and make you go, “Shouldn’t it work in this other, more logical way?”
Here’s the running list of time zone gotchas that affect my work the most.
Arizona, United States
Arizona uses Mountain Standard Time and does not observe daylight saving time (exception: Navajo County). So it’s always in UTC-7. From March to November, this is also Pacific Time.
In practice, it means you should always look at times specifically for Arizona when scheduling an event (I usually choose a city, like Tucson) instead of choosing Mountain Time.
China
China’s landmass is roughly as “wide” as is the United States, but there’s just one zone for the whole country. So Shanghai, Chongqing, and Urumqi all share the same time, all year round. (Most countries in Asia don’t observe daylight saving time.)
Sri Lanka & India
Sri Lanka and India use the time zone UTC+5:30. So the time difference between Singapore and New Delhi isn’t 2 hours or 3 hours, it’s 2.5 hours.
7. Look for ways to meet in person
It’s amazing how quickly my brain forgets how special it is to meet someone in person, to spend time in the same physical location. I’ve been learning and forgetting and re-learning my entire adult life.
It doesn’t matter how fast my internet is — I’ve never been able to make the same kind of connection with another human over a video call that I can through a face-to-face conversation in real life. It’s like comparing watching a rainy day scene on a screen with standing outside in the actual rain.
Every time I’ve met someone in real life, it’s completely transformed the way future interactions — over emails, message, and calls — feels. We get shit done faster, with a deeper sense of empathy and teamwork.
It might not be possible in the current climate of covid and social distancing, but when the pandemic passes, look for in-person conferences, workshops, retreats, and other events where you could meet your clients and even give them an old fashioned hug.
More on creating smooth and impressive client experiences
Working across time zones can really be straightforward and pain-free. You just need to know what to pay attention to, and what to look out for, so you can show up confidently and create a smooth experience for your clients.
If you liked this piece and want to learn more about how I think about creating client experiences in my web design and copywriting business, check out my course, Fast Track to More Clients.
It’s the simple, tried and tested website production system I’ve used to 4X my prices, work with bigger clients, get more quality referrals, and book out my calendar.
