How to Display Clocks for Multiple Time Zones in Ubuntu
Reading Time: 3 minutesIt’s easy to have multiple clocks displayed for different time zones in the Ubuntu top bar. Here’s how.
Want to add multiple time zones to your Ubuntu desktop? Maybe you’re a freelancer working remotely with people from all over the world and find yourself constantly checking the current time for multiple locations. Or perhaps, you have a friend or relative living overseas and need to keep an eye on their time zone, to avoid calling them at an odd hour.
Whatever the reason, having an additional clock on your desktop will only streamline your workflow and help you keep track of time. Let’s see how you can add another clock on Ubuntu.
Configure Multiple Time Zones on Ubuntu With Clocks
GNOME, Ubuntu’s default desktop environment, displays a single clock for the time zone you configured during installation. Usually, you add the time zone closest to your geographical location, but what if you travel a lot or have decided to move countries? You can easily add a new clock for a different time zone on GNOME.
To do that, you’d need GNOME Clocks, a graphical tool to manage time zones on Linux. On Ubuntu, you can install Clocks either graphically using Ubuntu Software or by entering the following in the terminal:
sudo apt install gnome-clocks
Once installed, launch Clocks from the applications menu. At first glance, you can view the option to Add World Clock. Click it, then search for a city in the dialog that appears. Select your preferred city from the results and proceed by clicking Add.
You can add more clocks by clicking the Plus (+) option located at the top-left corner of the window. Then, follow the same steps as before to configure a new time zone.
The new time zones will be added, but you can’t view the clocks without opening the notifications panel.
To fix this, you can install a GNOME shell extension like Panel World Clock (Lite) to quickly glance over the clocks, saving you a few clicks in the process.
Display Multiple Clocks in Ubuntu Using Panel World Clock (Lite)
As the name suggests, Panel World Clock is a simple GNOME extension that displays all the clocks you’ve configured in the Ubuntu top bar. It works perfectly out of the box and given its simplicity, you don’t get additional options to configure the extension.
You can install Panel World Clock (Lite) from the official GNOME Extensions website.
Download: Panel World Clock (Lite)
On the extension page, click Install to begin the installation process.
Alternatively, you can use GNOME Extension Manager to install new shell extensions on Ubuntu. Extension Manager makes it much easier for you to find, install, and remove GNOME extensions.
Install Extension Manager and launch it. Then, switch to the Browse tab and search for Panel World Clock (Lite) using the given field. In the results, click the Install button next to the extension’s name.
Extension Manager will instantly activate the extension and you’ll be able to view the different clocks in the top panel. There are several other must-have GNOME extensions that will help you improve your Linux desktop experience.
Always Stay on Time With GNOME and Ubuntu
Adding multiple clocks for different time zones is useful if you work in an organization consisting of people from all around the globe. This is possible on almost any desktop environment on Linux, irrespective of the distribution.
Linux is exciting enough to make you lose track of time, but it’s important for everyone to manage their time better and stay organized. If you find yourself constantly getting distracted while at work, consider installing an open-source screen monitoring app like ActivityWatch.