Not the Splits!

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You’d think that as a tree-hugging minimalist, I’d prefer an online calendar. And while I use one for back-up and electronic reminders, I love my paper calendar.

What I don’t enjoy is having my weekends split—with Sundays on the left side of the page and Saturdays on the right. I don’t live split weekends, so it’s hard for me to wrap my mind around them, even on paper.

After a bit of research, I found a paper calendar that leaves the weekends intact—Saturday and Sunday together on the right-hand side of the page—at the end of the week. Hence, weekend. I’m giddy with delight!

What’s your calendar preference?

© lauriebuchanan.com

86 thoughts on “Not the Splits!”

  1. I too prefer paper calendars with the weekend together: it just makes more sense. In fact, I bought one for DH with different birds for each month, as he is a keen bird watcher. Enjoy your calendar. 🐥

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  2. We’ve always had a “family” wall calendar in the kitchen. It’s usually the free one we get from our oil provider, and it has pictures from the Saturday Evening Post. It’s never bothered me that the weekends are split.

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  3. I keep an on-line one, but tend to use a paper one to keep records of work completed… Yes, split weekends don’t make sense… I hope you have a great entry of the year, Laurie.

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  4. I keep the weekend together in my own head as much as possible, but I use an online calendar. One thing I don’t like about it is that I can’t see the whole week in the same way. And I often forget to do my Sunday review/preview. Such a good practice. Your question challenged me to take up that practice again. Thanks, Laurie.

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    • Shirley — I can’t see the weekend in the same way as the rest of the week either in my online calendar either.

      There are two things about it that I do enjoy though: (1) my phone automatically syncs with my laptop, and (2) I can set alarms: 1 week ahead, 1 day ahead, 1 hour ahead.

      I’m glad this post prompted you to renew your Sunday review/preview practice 🙂

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    • Val — I couldn’t agree with you more about the little things. Here’s another person who appreciates details:

      “To be really great in little things, to be truly noble and heroic in the insipid details of everyday life, is a virtue so rare as to be worthy of canonization.” —Harriet Beecher Stowe

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  7. I have three calendars; 2 online and one paper. My PT employer has a calendar, so all of the events related to them are on that calendar (since events generate via that email address). My other online calendar is the most comprehensive event monitor; my PT employer, my business, volunteer, personal events are posted there. My paper calendar is my primary planner (month and weekly view). It is a Sunday to Saturday view. I am more concerned about it being made of recycled material (at least 50+%). I do print my comp. online calendar and transfer all dates to the paper. I do carry my paper calendar, so most new events land there first. Granted, it’s a bit cumbersome. However, all my weekly planning happens with the paper calendar. Yes, I too started the Sunday review and weekly planning habit long ago; it helps me be prepared for the planned so I can flex with the unplanned. Master lists/project plans are for the long term planning. Clearly, I love planning. Completing tasks, objectives, goals bring the greatest satisfaction ☺!

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  8. It has to be paper with beautiful photos of nature and words of wisdom . As for the weekend split …no absolutely no . Having said that wouldn’t it be good to split a weekend in two so you get a double weekend or am I just being greedy .
    Cherryx

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  9. I don’t generally prefer one over another and I usually use the calendar on my phone and sent up email/text messages to remind me. Of course I could have calendars made with my photography yet I never seem to treat myself with them!

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  10. Laurie, mentally we see our weekends as a whole, while traditionally calendars have been printed with Sunday coming as the first day of the week. I have always supposed this was so people could get up a good head of steam to blast into Monday. However, since the inception of civil calendars, the Julian and Gregorian, seven days to a week, is the norm. With the Gregorian being an improvement on the Julian to accommodate a Leap Year and the traveling date of Easter and Passover, one would assume that the calendar would be strictly a Judeo-Christian affair. Not so, plenty of Roman and Norse gods and goddesses lend their names to the Months and days. Now the upshot of all this is that in Genesis, God made the world and all it contained in six days and on the seventh he rested, calling it the Sabbath. A lot of people and you know who they are, would argue you into the ground about Sabbaths and Sundays, but most know the Sabbath as Sunday, the day of rest. To my mind, Monday should be the first day of the week, the Weekend should fall at the end of the week as is expected and Sunday would be the last day, the seventh day, the Day of Rest. Saturday and Sunday should hold hands and be inseparable as a unit. The Week END.

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  11. Laurie, while I don’t usually chime in, I just have to. Sunday is the first day of the week and should be the first day of the week on a calendar as well. It makes me nuts when the seven days are not the seven days. I prefer Sunday first and Saturday last. But I do prefer a paper calendar to an electronic one. Happy planning!

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  12. I love my MS Office calendar, which allows me to see day week or month st a time and put weekends just like I want it. Sundays have always been my busiest day of work week
    I always print out a blank month for my hubs because he likes paper and seeing whole month each look. Since we are both retired almost full time: we love the empty squares.
    Tom has taken to writing in Garden, Hiking, or Biking in his empties – I just smile and my minds eye sees READ. Ahhhhh

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    • Patricia — How cool that the MS Office calendar allows YOU to arrange the calendar layout the way that works best for YOU. That alone is worth the price of admission!

      I can well see your mind invisibly imprinting read, Read, READ on your calendar squares! 🙂

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  13. My last hold out is a digital calendar: I don’t like using it. Perhaps I think of time as linear even though I can see it as circular too.

    Anyway, I have a monthly calendar now for 2017 in my purse and a backup attached to the backside of a kitchen cabinet door. I keep it because there is an ancient Longenecker Farm Supply calendar backing with a photograph of a family giving thanks around the table, certainly an apt metaphor for my family. Cliff prints out 12 pages every year for an update. I need to remind him that it’s time for a new batch – ha!

    I keep a magnetic calendar that the New Yorker people send me every year propped up on my writing desk. That’s how I date my blog posts.

    Split weekend don’t bother me. Every day of the week has a certain “flavor” in my head and I apply it regardless of the calendar print. Does that make sense?

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    • Marian — I love it! You’re the FIRST person I’ve ever known who “flavors” their days. and yes, I do know what you mean. Each day has it’s own personality: spicy, bland, sweet, sour, salty, and savory. We’ll leave bitter out of the mix 🙂

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  14. Since I’ve retired, one day is much the same as another, but I would prefer my calendar weeks start with Monday, and I use both paper and digital. Digital counts if I’m out of the house and need to schedule something. Paper matters at home, when it sometimes just seems easier to look at the paper calendar. I have no words of wisdom or humor here – “just the facts m’am”

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  15. Laurie I love your posts especially what you posted recently :
    It’s interesting to note that elephant wisdom includes the art of listening. An animal with large ears and a comparatively small mouth, we learn that we would do well to listen and speak in those proportions.

    “I’m learning about the gifts of elephant wisdom. They include awareness, confidence, dignity, environmental protection and guardianship, family love, happiness, kindness, listening, longevity, patience, reliability, stamina, and wisdom.”
    ……… thankyou:)

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  16. I don’t like electronic calendars, especially after an experience a few years ago with the Outlook one – every time I went into it a lot of reminders, etc. kept flashing at me. I prefer all my calendars in print – from desk-type calendars to wall calendars (some of the latter have recipes which I use). However, I don’t mind having Saturdays on the right side and Sundays on the left. Guess my reasoning is the week starts with Sunday and so i prefer the whole week to show in the same line in print. Works for me. But whatever works for each of us.

    Happy New Year to all and may 2017 be good, prosperous and healthy.

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  17. I didn’t realize how choosy I was until you asked that question, Laurie.
    I like pretty pictures
    I like interesting information or meaningful quotes
    I like room to jot a short note about each day
    I like room at the top to jot a note about the month
    I like…
    This list is long enough. I’ll end it there.
    Wishing everyone a bright and shiny new year.
    I’m looking forward to spending my Tuesdays with you in 2017, Laurie.

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  18. I love my paper calendar that shows a week at a time with big blocks to write in ‘stuff’ each day as I need it. And it starts with Monday so Sat/Sun get cozy on the bottom of the right side. And the book has pale pink/white pages so it matches my den…just a little OCD showing there, Laurie! 😀

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  19. You all are far to organized for me! Perhaps that’s why I am forever a work in progress! I found a wonderful planner last year on line that lets me dream and scheme and write and create every which way I feel so inclined. The paper is too heavy and shiny to be perfect, but it’s done it’s job to keep me on task no matter what day it is. I’ve been self-employed so long I’ve gotten out of the habit of counting weekends as weekends. Now and again I miss it, but mostly going with the flow and following my muse is the most comfortable “plan” for me. For that, one doesn’t need a calendar at all! When I need to remember things, like my son’s wedding, 🙂 I write it on the calendar if it doesn’t attach itself to my brain – which is happening with increasing frequency!

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  21. Spent too many years as an expatriate in Muslim dominated countries–lost the feel for Sat/Sun–weekends Thu/Fri or Fri only or Fri/Sat–so I’ve become 7days/week–calendar comes as calendar comes.

    Though I am de-compressing back to my cultural roots Sat/Sun. Sun is church day. Sat is chore day. M-F is writing time. A certain glory in a ‘retirement’ calendar where the first day of the new month is more important than the ‘week-end’. Always adjusting to some kind of calendar, eh? 🙂

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  23. Calendar? Who needs one of those? I just ask my girlfriend what is next or remember appts. a day later :). Actually I would be a lost ball in high weeds without my Android calendar that is synced into everything.

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  24. Sunday has always been the beginning of my week for so many years, I need it to the left. Friday and Saturday are the end of the week for me, so Sunday feels like a fresh beginning.

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  25. Personally, I’m absolutely sold on the Dodo calendars… they’re spiral bound and show the whole week on one page, starting on a Monday. I love the quirky jokes, facts, drawings, etc. in it, plus the handy pockets where you can stuff bills and things. We’ve got one for the family where you can see what everybody’s doing for the week – used to be very handy with a teenager in the house! – and I recently got a smaller one for myself too, to use as a blogging calendar! I totally didn’t need it but there… 🙂

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      • You know what I was not sure if I was allowed to say what calendar it was in case people thought I was paid to advertise it or something… but I just happened to come across these calendars a few years ago and I liked them – and I hate the fact that we live in a world where I have to justify myself for recommending something I like! But I’m glad you didn’t take it the wrong way.

  26. I’m like most commenters and use multiple calendars. Just got deep into my Google online Calendar this year after realizing I was forgetting more and more appointments and obligations (No one told me senior moments would multiply like bunnies once we hit age 60!). But I always use a paper calendar in my office for “backup” as well as a calendar in the kitchen that I use to inform my wife of appointments, trips, etc. that may affect her in some way too. It’s our “community calendar.” She puts appointments and trips on there too.

    Chris

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  27. Laurie,
    I get that Saturday is the last day of the week, according to the creation account of the Bible and that Sunday is the Lord’s Day in light of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and accept it as true. However, I have never been much of a traditionalist. I must go along with you and Sandi in that “Saturday and Sunday should hold hands and be inseparable as a unit.” I can’t say it any better, so I’ll leave it at that.
    PS, I also like to do my scheduling on a paper date book that I carry in my briefcase.

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  29. I gleefully and righteously use a paper calendar – the same artist, Mary Engelbright (sp) every year. She leaves me lots of space on each day to write what’s going on (so I don’t miss something) and Saturday and Sunday get the same amount of space as the rest of the week. I laugh at my friends who use their ‘tech’ calendars on their phone – they forget a date constantly. I keep saying, WRITE IT ON PAPER!! it’s the only way for me. Happy New Year!!!

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  32. I use a combination of both paper and electronic calendar — paper for schoolwork and electronic for personal errands. It gives me a sense of separation between my two lives. Maybe it’s just me, but I find separating them makes me feel more oriented on what I am to the situation. (Although it *does* mean going back and forth with different calendars which is sometimes a nuance :P)

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    • Rachel — I love that using BOTH paper and electronic calendars gives you a “sense of separation between my two lives” — school and personal.

      Peace, joy, and health to you and yours in this new year 🙂

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  34. My calendar preference is pretty much like yours, but I prefer a wall calendar with space to write up “stuff” and which I can see directly while working on my computer. The electronic one is definitely a back-up for me too. Happy New Year to you and yours, Laurie. XX

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  36. Paper calendars for sure!!! I have our family calendar hanging in our kitchen filled with many, MANY, too many daily activities. I also carry a purse pocket calendar. I have actually spent good money trying to find one that shows the month spread out on both pages as I do not like the weekly or daily calendar pages. At home, each day must have it’s own square!! A bit OCD? maybe……

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  37. I will always stick with the old-fashioned manner of records. A paper calendar it will be for me! Much as I always want a physical copy of a book, a record or CD and films contained in packaged DVDs or blu rays!

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