Want to add multiple time zones to your Ubuntu desktop? Maybe you’re a freelancer working remotely with people around the world and find yourself constantly checking the current times for multiple locations. Or perhaps, you have a friend or relative who lives abroad and needs to keep track of their time zone to avoid calling at odd hours.
Whatever the reason, having an extra clock on your desktop will only streamline your workflow and help you keep track of time. Let us see how you can add another clock in Ubuntu.
Configure Multiple Time Zones on Ubuntu with Clock
GNOME, Ubuntu’s default desktop environment, displays a clock for the time zone you configured during installation. Typically, you add the time zone closest to your geographic 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 this, you will need GNOME Clocks, a graphical tool for managing time zones on Linux. On Ubuntu, you can install Clocks either using the Ubuntu Software or by entering the following in Terminal.
Once installed, launch Clocks from the Applications menu. At first glance, you can see 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 click on Add to proceed.
You can add more watches by clicking the plus (+) option in the top-left corner of the window. Then, follow the same steps as before to configure the new time zone.
The new time zone will be added, but you can’t see the clocks without opening the notification panel.
To fix this, you can install a GNOME Shell extension like Panel World Clock (Lite) so you can quickly view 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 have configured in the Ubuntu top bar. It works perfectly out of the box and considering its simplicity, you don’t get extra options to configure the extension.
You can install Panel World Clock (Lite) from the official GNOME Extensions website.
Alternatively, you can use the GNOME Extension Manager to install new Shell extensions on Ubuntu. Extension Manager makes it very easy 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 provided fields. In the results, click the Install button next to the name of the extension.
The extension manager will immediately activate the extension and you will be able to see the different clocks in the top panel. There are many other indispensable GNOME extensions that will help you improve your Linux desktop experience.
Always Be on Time with GNOME and Ubuntu
If you work in an organization made up of people from all over the world, adding multiple clocks for different time zones is useful. This is possible on Linux on almost any desktop environment, regardless of 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 working, consider installing an open-source screen monitoring app like ActivityWatch.
It’s easy to spend hours sitting in front of a screen without knowing where the time went. You only have 24 hours to spend each day, and you can choose to either spend your time working on important tasks or waste it on unnecessary activities.
Fortunately, it’s easy to track your screen time on Linux to identify activities that may be causing you to lose focus. Perhaps you want to monitor your child’s activity on the Internet and need an effective tool that can do that for you. ActivityWatch is an open-source app that helps you keep track of your screen time on Linux.