How to keep track of lunch hours and off hours across time zones

A meeting that starts at a perfectly reasonable hour can still land in the middle of someone's lunch or just after their working day ends. Lunch and off hours are the details that calendar apps rarely show, which is why they cause so many awkward messages.

Know the usual pattern, then verify it. In Korea, Japan and many other places, lunch is a fixed hour around noon. In parts of southern Europe and Latin America lunch is later and longer. In many Muslim-majority countries the Friday midday prayer changes how the middle of Friday works. Treat 12:00-13:00 as a default, not a rule, and ask colleagues about their real habits.

Avoid the edges of the day. The first and last hour of someone's working day are the most likely to be taken by planning, hand-over or commuting. If you have a choice, aim for the middle of the overlap rather than its edge.

Separate "off hours" from "asleep". A teammate who finished work at 18:00 may still answer a short question at 20:00, while a message at 03:00 will wake a phone. TeamOffDays separates the two for registered people: Off hours means outside the work hours you entered, and Sleeping means inside the sleep window you entered.

Record schedules once. On the People tab, enter each person's sleep time, lunch time and, if you know them, work hours (the same every day, or per weekday). Vacation dates can be added as well, and the List, Calendar and Map then show who is reachable right now. Everything stays in your browser.

Leave a written trail. When you cannot find a shared slot, send the proposal in writing with both local times and let the other side choose. People respond better to two concrete options than to the question "when are you free?".