Here is the 2026 daylight-saving map without the blog-post fog. Use it to rebuild repeating invites. Pair it with city pages — New York, London, Sydney — because a country name is not a timezone.
Who moves, and when
United States (most of the country): begin Sunday 8 March 2026, end Sunday 1 November 2026. 02:00 local springs forward / falls back. Arizona (except Navajo) and Hawaii do not move. Los Angeles does. Phoenix does not.
Europe (EU + UK in 2026): begin Sunday 29 March, end Sunday 25 October. Berlin and London currently share the last-Sunday rule. Offset between New York and London is five hours except 8–29 March and 25 October–1 November, when it is four.
Australia (DST states): end Sunday 5 April 2026, begin Sunday 4 October 2026. Melbourne matches Sydney. Brisbane does not move. Perth does not move. Adelaide moves but from a +9:30 base.
New Zealand: southern pattern near Australia’s, not identical. Check `Pacific/Auckland`.
Offset consequences people actually feel
US–UK spring gap: New York 09:00 is London 13:00 for three weeks, not 14:00. The New York–London folklore breaks.
US–Europe autumn gap: London has already gone back; New York has not. Same four-hour trap in the other season.
US–Australia: both move, opposite times of year, different weekends. A January Sydney morning versus California evening is not the same math as a July one. Add Brisbane and you have a third line on the whiteboard.
US–Japan or US–India: only the US moves. Tokyo and Bangalore stay put. The offset still changes. “They don’t have DST so nothing happens” is how you show up an hour off.
Holdouts worth memorizing
Japan, China, Singapore, India, most of Africa, Iceland, Saskatchewan, Queensland, Arizona, Puerto Rico, Hawaii. Holdouts are not simpler. They make the *other* side’s jump the whole story.
Hygiene
The week before each cluster, screenshot the pair heatmap, recreate the series from the Monday after, put both IANA names in the title, and tell the channel which weekend is coming. Mocking the person who misses by an hour is a culture problem. The clocks were published years in advance.
DST 2026 is a calendar, not a surprise. Treat it like a planned outage: US 8 Mar / 1 Nov, Europe 29 Mar / 25 Oct, Australia 5 Apr / 4 Oct. Then stop saying “it’s always five hours.”
A one-page runbook
Owner: the person who created the series (not "engineering"). Trigger: Friday before each cluster. Actions: screenshot three zones, recreate from Monday, post both civil times, link New York–London or the relevant pair, name holdouts (Japan, India, Queensland, Arizona). Rollback: if you dragged instances last year, delete and recreate; dragging is how folklore gets stored.
Add Queensland explicitly whenever someone says Australia. Add Arizona whenever someone says Mountain Time. Add Phoenix versus Denver as a quiz you will fail in November.
The runbook is boring. Being an hour late to a customer call is exciting in the wrong direction. Sydney and Brisbane will not save you from each other.
Field notes from the city desk
Treat New York as a place, not a resource pool. FiDi keeps 09:00–18:00 as the honest window. Slack after 19:00 is usually parked until the morning subway ride. A calendar title that omits America/New_York is how this city gets pinged in the dark.
In Los Angeles, start from Culver City. Traffic, not manners, sets the real end of day: a 17:30 ping often lands in a parked car on the 405. The local prior remains 09:00–18:00 (America/Los_Angeles). If this article's advice conflicts with that desk, the desk wins — ask once and write it down.
London (Europe/London) does not owe you HQ hours. Sorry-culture is real: a 19:00 Slack gets a next-morning reply and a faint wince. Ping inside 09:00–18:00 around the City / Shoreditch, or schedule send. Presence dots after 18:00 are scenery.
Berlin (Europe/Berlin) does not owe you HQ hours. Punctuality is kindness. 18:01 is already Feierabend unless the calendar said otherwise. Ping inside 09:00–18:00 around Mitte / Kreuzberg offices, or schedule send. Presence dots after 18:00 are scenery.
Treat Sydney as a place, not a resource pool. the CBD / Barangaroo keeps 09:00–17:00 as the honest window. AEDT in summer, AEST in winter. US calls eat breakfast or dinner — never lunch. After 18:00 a ping is tomorrow. A calendar title that omits Australia/Sydney is how this city gets pinged in the dark.
Treat Melbourne as a place, not a resource pool. the Docklands / Collins Street offices keeps 09:00–17:00 as the honest window. Same DST rules as Sydney. A 09:00 stand-up is civilized; a 07:00 California-overlap is a favor. A calendar title that omits Australia/Melbourne is how this city gets pinged in the dark.
Treat Brisbane as a place, not a resource pool. the CBD / Fortitude Valley offices keeps 08:00–17:00 as the honest window. Queensland skips DST. In January they sit with Tokyo; in July they lag Sydney by an hour. Check. A calendar title that omits Australia/Brisbane is how this city gets pinged in the dark.
None of these notes replace the live verdict. Open the city page at send time. Clocks and holidays move; this paragraph does not.