Time zones

A timed commitment — anything on your calendar — keeps its clock in a place. A meeting set for 9:00 in New York is 9:00 there. On a phone in Los Angeles it is drawn at 6:00, on the day it falls where the phone is, and it rings at the real moment.

All-day commitments float. A birthday is the same date everywhere.

#When there is no zone

An empty zone means "9:00 wherever the phone is". Every all-day commitment works this way. A timed commitment is given the phone's own zone the moment it is saved, so nothing timed stays floating for long.

#Here and there

The commitment card has a "time zone" row for any commitment with a time. It does not show for an all-day one.

• The row shows a chip naming the place its clock is kept in. While that place is this phone's, it reads "‹city› · here".
• Choose somewhere else and two more chips appear beside it: "there" and "here". They say which clock the time above the row is read on.
• Flipping between "there" and "here" never moves the moment. It is the same moment, shown in other numbers.
• A line underneath says which you are on: "the time above is the time here" or "the time above is ‹place› time".

Choosing a zone does not move the time either. The numbers you typed stay the same, and the switch moves to "there" — the clock you typed them on.

#Ends in — for trips

Under "how long" there is an "ends in" row, with "the same place" or "another place…".

A flight leaves on the clock of where it leaves, and lands on the clock of where it lands. Its length stays the real minutes between the two moments. When a commitment ends somewhere else, the end time you pick is that place's time, and the length runs until that time next comes round there.

#Choosing a place

The "time zone" chip opens a list headed "its time zone". The second "ends in" chip opens the same list headed "it ends in".

• Search. The box at the top reads "a city" when empty. Type anything in a row — the city, the region, the offset — or the zone's full name.
• Rows. Each shows the place, its region and its offset right now, as "tokyo · asia · utc+9". This phone's own zone adds " · here".
• Order. With nothing typed: this phone's zone first, then places you chose before, then every other place. The last six you chose are remembered on this phone.
• Places. The world's time zones, named by city, across nine regions — africa, america, antarctica, asia, atlantic, australia, europe, indian and pacific — plus utc. A place is named the way a person says it: "new york", not its technical zone name.
• Ends in. When the question is where a commitment ends, "the same place" is the first row. It disappears once you type.
• Choosing. Tap a row; there is no confirm button. "never mind" closes the list and changes nothing.

Two zone names that keep the same clock count as one place. Picking either is never treated as a change.

#How it is drawn

A commitment kept in another zone is drawn on the day and at the time it falls where you are. Anything that saves it back saves the same moment.

#What its page says

On the commitment's page, the line that says when it happens shows both clocks:

• Kept somewhere else: "5p here · 9a los angeles", with its length in brackets.
• Crossing zones, like a flight: "10a tokyo → 10:30p honolulu, sep 24 (7h 30m)". The day is named when it lands on another day. If the phone is in neither place, " · 5p here" is added.

The length is always said, because two clock times alone would hide it. 3pm eastern to 3pm pacific is a three-hour flight, not a zero-minute one.

#Where it is

The card's "time zone" and "ends in" rows, both only for a commitment with a time. Both clocks also show on the commitment's own page. See Add a commitment for where the card opens, and Times & repeats for the rows above these two.

#See also.

Times & repeats · A commitment's page · Time & directions