Timezone Tetris: The Daily Grind Costing Remote Freelancers and Global Teams Every day, distributed teams waste precious time and mental energy just trying to schedule one simple meeting: “Can everyone do 2pm EST on Tuesday?”
“That’s 3am for me in Sydney…”
“Wait—is that before or after daylight saving?”
“How about 9am PST instead?” “Can everyone do 2pm EST on Tuesday?” “That’s 3am for me in Sydney…” “Wait—is that before or after daylight saving?” “How about 9am PST instead?” If you’ve worked across time zones, you’ve lived this. What should be a 30-second decision turns into a multi-day thread of confusion, frustration, and timezone math. So I started building a solution to scratch my own itch. It’s called BridgeTime—a visual timezone scheduler that shows overlapping availability at a glance. BridgeTime It’s still a work in progress, and I’m learning (and messing up) by doing—every step on the way. My North Star: Make Scheduling Feel Instant I didn’t set out to build a startup or sell a product. I just wanted something better than this: The Old Way (Painful) Email: “When can everyone meet?”


Responses in inconsistent timezones


Google searches or spreadsheet gymnastics


Endless clarification: “Wait, you mean 9am your time or mine?”


A suboptimal time for at least one person
🧠 Mental drain: High
⏱️ Time wasted: 15–30 minutes Email: “When can everyone meet?” Email: “When can everyone meet?” Responses in inconsistent timezones Responses in inconsistent timezones Google searches or spreadsheet gymnastics Google searches or spreadsheet gymnastics Endless clarification: “Wait, you mean 9am your time or mine?” Endless clarification: “Wait, you mean 9am your time or mine?” your A suboptimal time for at least one person
🧠 Mental drain: High
⏱️ Time wasted: 15–30 minutes A suboptimal time for at least one person 🧠 Mental drain: High Mental drain: ⏱️ Time wasted: 15–30 minutes Time wasted: What I’m Building with BridgeTime Click to create a meeting session


Share a link


Teammates pick their location/timezone (no login, no email)


A visual timeline shows the best overlaps instantly
🧠 Mental drain: Near-zero
⏱️ Time spent: ~2 minutes Click to create a meeting session Click to create a meeting session Share a link Share a link Teammates pick their location/timezone (no login, no email) Teammates pick their location/timezone (no login, no email) A visual timeline shows the best overlaps instantly
🧠 Mental drain: Near-zero
⏱️ Time spent: ~2 minutes A visual timeline shows the best overlaps instantly 🧠 Mental drain: Near-zero Mental drain: ⏱️ Time spent: ~2 minutes Time spent: The goal isn’t just speed—it’s removing friction completely. Tech Stack: Fast, Lightweight, Edge-First I'm building BridgeTime with technologies I wanted to explore and that scale well globally: Framework:  Next.js 15 (App Router + Edge Runtime)  
Hosting:    Cloudflare Pages  
Database:   Cloudflare D1 (SQLite)  
Cache:      Cloudflare KV  
Styling:    Tailwind CSS + CSS Custom Properties Framework:  Next.js 15 (App Router + Edge Runtime)  
Hosting:    Cloudflare Pages  
Database:   Cloudflare D1 (SQLite)  
Cache:      Cloudflare KV  
Styling:    Tailwind CSS + CSS Custom Properties Why Cloudflare? Because it puts your code and data near users everywhere—important when working with time-based, location-specific data. Why Cloudflare? Why Next.js 15? I wanted to learn React Server Components and build an app that feels fast without overengineering. Why Next.js 15? Making Timezone Search Human Friendly Users don’t search for America/New_York. They search for: America/New_York “New York”
“EST”
“Eastern Time”
“NYC”
“US East Coast” “New York” “EST” “Eastern Time” “NYC” “US East Coast” So I built a layered search engine with multiple strategies: const strategies = [
  searchByCity,
  searchByCountry,
  searchByAbbreviation,
  searchByAlias,
  searchByRegion
];

for (const strategy of strategies) {
  const matches = await strategy(query);
  // merge, deduplicate, rank
} const strategies = [
  searchByCity,
  searchByCountry,
  searchByAbbreviation,
  searchByAlias,
  searchByRegion
];

for (const strategy of strategies) {
  const matches = await strategy(query);
  // merge, deduplicate, rank
} It’s still evolving—but "NYC", "Brazil", and "JFK" all return sensible results. That's the goal. Real-Time UI (Without WebSockets) I thought I'd need WebSockets for real-time collaboration. Turns out, simple polling does the job just fine: useEffect(() => {
  const interval = setInterval(async () => {
    const data = await fetch(`/api/session/${sessionId}`).then(r => r.json());
    if (data.lastModified > lastKnownUpdate) {
      setParticipants(data.participants);
    }
  }, 5000);

  return () => clearInterval(interval);
}, [sessionId]); useEffect(() => {
  const interval = setInterval(async () => {
    const data = await fetch(`/api/session/${sessionId}`).then(r => r.json());
    if (data.lastModified > lastKnownUpdate) {
      setParticipants(data.participants);
    }
  }, 5000);

  return () => clearInterval(interval);
}, [sessionId]); Why it works: No connection management
Fully compatible with Cloudflare Pages
Low battery impact
Easy to debug No connection management Fully compatible with Cloudflare Pages Low battery impact Easy to debug Sometimes simplicity wins. The Visual Timeline: The Core Feature BridgeTime’s timeline is the centerpiece. It maps participants’ working hours and highlights overlaps visually: <div 
  className={`timeline-cell ${isWorkHour ? 'available' : 'unavailable'} ${isSelected ? 'selected' : ''}`}
  style={{
    backgroundColor: isWorkHour ? '#22c55e' : '#ef4444',
    opacity: isSelected ? 1 : 0.7
  }}
/> <div 
  className={`timeline-cell ${isWorkHour ? 'available' : 'unavailable'} ${isSelected ? 'selected' : ''}`}
  style={{
    backgroundColor: isWorkHour ? '#22c55e' : '#ef4444',
    opacity: isSelected ? 1 : 0.7
  }}
/> The Mobile Challenge Fitting a 24-hour timeline on small screens was painful. So I built a “smart window” that auto-selects the most relevant 8 hours for mobile users: if (isMobile) {
  const bestWindow = findOptimalWindow(calculateOverlaps(participants), 8);
  return bestWindow;
} if (isMobile) {
  const bestWindow = findOptimalWindow(calculateOverlaps(participants), 8);
  return bestWindow;
} Still refining it, but the experience feels far more focused and usable. Caching for Global Speed To make timezone search blazing fast, I precompute and cache lookups during the build step: npm run build:cache
# Generates:
# trie-cache.json
# sorted-cache.json
# bloom-cache.json npm run build:cache
# Generates:
# trie-cache.json
# sorted-cache.json
# bloom-cache.json These static structures are loaded into Cloudflare KV, so search is near-instant anywhere in the world. I also use native CSS variables for theming—no runtime CSS overhead: :root {
  --bt-bg: #f0f9ff;
  --bt-text: #1e293b;
  --bt-accent: #2563eb;
} :root {
  --bt-bg: #f0f9ff;
  --bt-text: #1e293b;
  --bt-accent: #2563eb;
} What I’ve Learned (So Far) Start with mobile-first for real
Polling beats WebSockets sometimes
Users don’t care about your architecture Start with mobile-first for real Start with mobile-first for real Polling beats WebSockets sometimes Polling beats WebSockets sometimes Users don’t care about your architecture Users don’t care about your architecture Where It Stands BridgeTime is fully anonymous and live today. No logins. No email. Just intuitive scheduling flows built for remote teams: 1. World Clock View – Start With Timezones Add clocks for team members, clients, or regions. Label each with a name.Select participants → create a session → choose duration → get best overlaps. 2. Plan a Meeting – Start With a Date Have a date in mind? Set it, share a session link, and collect time availability from invitees.Once responses are in, confirm and choose the best time visually. Roadmap: What’s Next TBD :) I am actually using, exploring and paying attention to feedbacks. Things might change, I may add accounts so you can have your clocks set  ready  from any device… I am also aware the UI is still strange, my wife is figuring out colors and icons. I will write another article soon presenting the next step. Try It. Break It. Tell me what sucks :) 🟢 https://bridgetime.cc https://bridgetime.cc What’s Coming Next (On HackerNoon) “How I Built a 2ms Timezone Search Engine”
“Why I Ditched WebSockets for Simple Polling”
…or something else, let’s see what comes next 😁 “How I Built a 2ms Timezone Search Engine” “Why I Ditched WebSockets for Simple Polling” …or something else, let’s see what comes next 😁 BridgeTime is my sandbox. If you’ve ever screamed internally at ‘2pm EST?’, you’re not alone. :) BridgeTime is my sandbox. If you’ve ever screamed internally at ‘2pm EST?’, you’re not alone. :)

This story will praise and/or roast a product, company, service, game, or anything else people like to review on the Internet.

This story contains new, firsthand information uncovered by the writer.

The writer is smart, but don't just like, take their word for it. #DoYourOwnResearch before making any investment decisions or decisions regarding your health or security. (Do not regard any of this content as professional investment advice, or health advice)

Cloudflare

Bridgetime or How I’m Building a Visual Timezone Scheduler While Learning by Doing

About Author

Comments

TOPICS

THIS ARTICLE WAS FEATURED IN

Related Stories

What Rust and the Roman Republic Teach Us About Broken Systems

How to Uninstall Windows 11 Updates When a Patch Breaks Your System

Books That Found Me When I Wasn’t Looking

The Price of Freedom Pt. 3 (Final)

SEO is DEAD!

The Calculator Project: Why It Was Easier, Yet Full of Hurdles

What Rust and the Roman Republic Teach Us About Broken Systems

How to Uninstall Windows 11 Updates When a Patch Breaks Your System

Books That Found Me When I Wasn’t Looking

The Price of Freedom Pt. 3 (Final)

SEO is DEAD!

The Calculator Project: Why It Was Easier, Yet Full of Hurdles

Light-Mode

Classic

Newspaper

Minty

Dark-Mode

Neon Noir

Minty

HN StartUps