Blog · 2026-10-31

Calendar Time Zones: How to Stop Events Landing at the Wrong Hour

An event lands at the wrong hour for one of two reasons: the event was saved in the wrong time zone, or your calendar is displaying it in a time zone you did not expect. Both are fixable, and once you know which one you are dealing with, it takes about a minute.

Yotei turns schedules on your screen into calendar events you review first, including the time zone. See how it works

TL;DR

• Every event has a time zone of its own. Your calendar also has a display time zone. They can differ.
• When you add an event for a meeting abroad, set the event time zone to where the meeting is anchored, not to where you happen to sit.
• Write the zone in the title or description for anything important, for example "10:00 CET".
• Check the day, not only the hour. A late evening in one zone is the next morning in another.

Event time zone versus display time zone

Your calendar shows every event in one display time zone, normally the one set in your calendar settings. Each event also stores the time zone it was created in. If a colleague in Amsterdam creates a call for 14:00 and you are in London, the calendar converts it and shows 13:00. That is correct. Trouble starts when the event was saved with the wrong zone to begin with.

Set the time zone in Google Calendar

1. Open the event and click the time text.
2. Choose Time zone.
3. Pick a zone for the start and, if needed, a different one for the end. A flight is the usual case: it departs in one zone and lands in another.

Under Settings you can also show a secondary time zone beside your main one, which makes it easy to see both ends of a call.

Set the time zone in Outlook

In the event window, use the Time zones option to show separate start and end zones. Choose the zone the meeting is anchored to, then check how it reads in your own zone before you save.

Mistakes that cause wrong times

• Typing the time you see in a message without its zone. "Webinar at 3pm" may mean 3pm for the organiser, not for you.
• Daylight saving changes. Zones switch on different dates, so a weekly call can shift by an hour for a few weeks a year.
• Travelling with a fixed display zone. Your events may appear an hour off after a trip if the display zone did not follow you.
• Copying an event from a screenshot by hand. It is easy to retype the hour and drop the zone.

A short checklist before you save

1. Is the zone written in the source? If not, ask.
2. Is the event saved in that zone?
3. Does the converted time in your calendar look sensible for both sides?
4. Is the date the same on both sides?

Events that arrive as screenshots

Schedules often arrive as an image: a chat message, a flyer, a forwarded invitation. A screenshot-to-calendar tool such as Yotei reads the date, time and place from the image and shows them to you for review before anything is added. Because you check each field, you can confirm the time zone or fix it before the event is saved.

Yotei deletes the screenshot as soon as you confirm the event, or within 48 hours if you do not. The AI service that reads the screenshot may be outside the EEA and is only used after you consent. Details are in the privacy policy.

FAQ

Why does my calendar show a meeting an hour off?

Most often the event was saved in a different time zone from the one you assumed, or daylight saving started on different dates in the two places. Open the event and check its time zone.

Should I set the event time zone to mine or the organiser's?

Use the zone the meeting is anchored to, usually the organiser's or the venue's. Your calendar converts it to your display zone for you.

Can I show two time zones at once?

Yes. Google Calendar lets you display a secondary time zone in settings, and Outlook can show a second zone in the calendar view.

By Omar Salloum, founder of Yotei (KD Digital).