Image via DraconianRain
We got an email recently on a topic I haven’t blogged about in years: what day does your week begin? It’s a topic people get passionate about, and rightly so — if you’re used to one monthly view, it’s very hard to switch to a different scheme. I use wall calendars for long-view planning and still get thrown by the one I have this year, which was a gift from a friend and which starts on Sunday. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve entered stuff on Friday thinking it’s Saturday!
For our correspondent, though, it was the other way around:
I have screwed up the first 8 weeks of this year because when I look at a monthly block Wednesday is the 3rd day of the week but the 4th day in a monthly format. I have missed 6 standing appointments looking at my block plan.
As I mentioned in 2007, we hew to the European convention that the week starts on Monday and runs through Sunday; the only Sunday-to-Saturday planner that we offer is the Visoplan, which is a monthly planner.
What day does your week start?
17 Comments
Sam
When I was younger I couldn’t for the life of me work out why people said the week began on Sunday, I mean Sunday’s the last day of the weekend before school starts again, right?
Now that rather a lot of water has passed under the bridge, I find myself of the opinion that the week does indeed begin on a Sunday, though for the life of me I have no clue why!
LM
Definitely Monday. I guess it’s tied to the work/school week.
Dizzy Pen
My week begins on Sunday, but it’s never affected my ability to use Quo Vadis planners.
My work week starts on Mondays, and that’s what I use my planners to plan. Seems quite logical to me.
Laurie
I think many people in the US are used to their monthly calendar’s weeks starting on Sunday because it seems like the majority of US calendars are formatted that way (although I don’t know why). So, I can see how it would be difficult for someone to get used to a Monday start if they are used to a Sunday start.
Personally, I have to have monthly calendars with weeks that begin on Monday, to correspond with my weekly planner. I quickly get confused if the first day of the week is different in my monthly and weekly planners.
Dizzy Pen
Laurie, I believe that the week begins on Sunday because Sunday is the first day of the week on the Christian calendar.
Bart N
The Jewish Sabbath was the 7th day of the week, what we call Saturday. Christ resurrected from the dead on the first day of the week, what we now call Sunday. See Matthew 28:1; John 20:1 and others.
David Maliniak
This is correct, with the caveat that Saturday eternally remains the Sabbath day. Many Christians are under the mistaken belief that Sunday (Resurrection Day) is the Sabbath. Christ rested in the tomb on Saturday to rise on Sunday. Saturday has always been, and will always be, the Sabbath day.
Julie (Okami)
I am very used to the calendars with their weeks beginning on Sunday. But to me Monday is the first day of the week, after all it was on the 7th day that we were told to rest, for me that is Sunday.
Lanzman
The calendar may claim that the week begins on Sunday, but working stiffs know that each week truly begins with another stinkin’ Monday.
GrannyKass
I’m with the group that believes the weeks starts on Sunday – for calendar purposes. Yes the work week begins on Monday – FOR MOST PEOPLE. I worked for 15 years in a company whose work week was Sunday through Saturday as some operation were 24/7, as were the schedules in my military years. I became so accustomed to this and the fact that most US calendars use the Sunday first day of the week format. I get terribly confused when presented with a European style calendar.
ccorrada
now that you bring it up, my calendar is usually the “master calendar” in my team. I usually buy next years’ calendar where I go on vacation, and this year I’m using one from Paris. It begins on Monday and it has thrown all of us off a bit for the whole year… I have to have that in mind for 2011..
Sam Doran
I grew up in the US where the week begins on Sunday on most calendars. This drives me absolutely nuts! The weekEND is Saturday and Sunday; not the week sandwich or week bread. When I worked in advertising, scheduling the ads on the weekend, visually, made much more sense when Saturday and Sunday were shown as part of the current week. It does take some getting used to, but it is a much more practical, logical, and functional arrangement— sort of like the metric system…
Bridgett
I prefer a week that begins on Sunday. It’s just what I’m used to. That said, I don’t care much either way and my current calendar starts on Monday. It doesn’t bother me either way.
Mike
What is the first day following the weekend? It’s a nobrainer….
Palimpsest
C’mon it’s Monday. Monday.
Laurie
Bart that’s very interesting! I had always thought of Sunday as the “day of rest” and therefore the last day of the week, making Monday the first day of the week.
I find it fascinating that our calendar formats have such ancient origins, ased on traditions thousands of years old.
Ruth
My work week and my monthly calendar both begin on Sunday, and I would much prefer that the weekly pages began that way as well. Unfortunately, I am hard-pressed to actually find a weekly/monthly planner that is formatted in that way. I’m very close to wasting quite a bit of paper to print out my own.