With my new job, I find myself frequently (twice a week) switching between EST and PST. This can be confusing when planning meetings and other events on my calendar, because I have to mentally keep track of where each attendee is. Often I find myself switching my time zone back and forth using the "Change Date and Time Settings..." dialog in Windows 7.

Wouldn't it be nice if there were a faster way to do the switch? Well, it turns out there is! To do this, we're going to build a simple batch file for each Time Zone we spend time in. Here's an example -- repeat for each zone you want.

• Open Notepad and enter this code:

@echo off
cls
echo Switching to EST...
echo.
tzutil /s "Eastern Standard Time"
echo Done!


• Save the file in your C:\Windows directory as: est.cmd
• To invoke, hold the Windows key on your keyboard, and then press R -- this will invoke the "Run..." dialog
• Type: est
• Hit enter

Your clock will be instantly switched to Eastern Standard Time, and if you're using Outlook, your calendar will update too. Once you get used to the keystrokes, you can change time zones in less than two seconds.