how to wire two switches in one box with three wires , two of the go to different lights, which one is hot

If somebody could help me with this, please! There are two switches in a box. I wanted to put a timer on one switch, so I disconnected it. Then I realized that the timer needs a neutral and there is no neutral in that box. So I reconnected the switch but now one switch is depended on the other. Here is my puzzle. There are three wires, white, black and red, I am not even sure which one is hot, but there is obviously one hot and two are loads (lights). So which one is hot?? I connected black to both switches and one switch to white and another to red. The results is one switch turns on lights only if the other switch is on. I reconnected to the white as common – the same thing. Maybe red is common, but something is fishy here, as I don't remember it being common. So how I determine for sure which is hot and how to make sure the switches are not influencing each other Thank you in advance