07 March 2014

Free For All Friday No. 277

I started out the year using Wo2P with lines in my Personal Filofax, since that's what my local stationer had in stock, and I wanted to give them the business. I don't like the way the lines look, but they do help keep my writing straight!

Recently, I ordered the Wo2P with the weeks starting on Sunday. This diary has no lines, and it also shows many Christian holidays, which is what I wanted. It also gives an equal amount of space to each day, which means that the weekdays are smaller and the weekend days are larger compared to the standard Monday-starting diary. I'm going to start using this diary on April 1.

I believe the Sunday-starting week is more common in the U.S., and the Monday start is more common in Europe.

When do you start your week?

35 comments:

  1. Why is it that most of the comments that I make - including the one before this - seem to vanish into cyberspace?

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  2. John, mine just did the same thing.

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  3. I wish it wouldn't - it's not helping my paranoia :o)

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  4. Is it because you are clicking on Sign Out instead of Publish?

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  5. Mine just disappeared, too (and I definitely clicked publish).

    I kick myself every time a comment goes poof and I didn't ctrl-A ctrl-C before posting :(

    Anyway, Monday. Has to be Monday. I'm a kiwi, and we tend to do things the way the UK does them, so I guess I grew up with it. Plus, the weekend comes at the end of the week (Week. End.) I get all messy and can't plan if it's split in half.

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  6. My week starts on Monday, and I prefer my planner pages to have Monday starts so that my weekend days are together for easier planning. I prefer monthly calendars to have Monday-starting weeks too for the same reason, and so they correspond directly to my weekly planning pages.

    In the US most monthly calendars have Sunday-starting weeks, which causes a lot of confusion for people who try to switch to a non-US format monthly calendar.

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    1. Yes, confusion abounds when trying to change your monthly calendar. On the other hand a weekly view starting on a Monday causes no problems at all. *sigh*

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    2. I am in this camp. I had never seen a Monday start date until I started using Filofax. And it really helps when forward planning, especially to see how much I have going on for one specific weekend. To see the weekend days together helps me to plan some time for myself.

      Now that I've gotten so used to the Monday start, I refuse to go back to a Sunday start, no matter how pretty the inserts might be...

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    3. I'm the holdout. My workweek is Tuesday-Saturday. Monday starts break up my weekend. I hope Sunday starts are always available!

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    4. I started this year with filofax Wo2P and Daytimer tabbed Mo1P. Drove me mad for a few weeks getting confused on dates and days due to one diary being a Sunday start and the other being a Monday start. I also prefer the Monday start which makes more sense, is even biblical!

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  7. I very much prefer weeks to start on Monday - probably as a result of 20+ years using TMI inserts which *all* start on Monday, but also, I think, because I like to see my two weekend days together at the bottom of the page/second page.

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  8. Saturday, until very recent times, was regarded as a weekday (the word comes from "workday") and the last day of the working week. Most people worked Saturdays (latterly often just until lunchtime). Bus and train timetables were (certainly in the UK until the 1980's) divided into "Weekdays" (meaning Monday to Saturday) and Sundays. In Christian countries, Sunday was always the first day of the week. Thus, even in the UK, weekly calendars usually ran Sunday to Saturday. Like David, my first exposure to a Monday calendar start was with Time Manager (TMI) in the mid-1980's. It's rare to find a Sunday to Saturday weekly calendar in the UK these days, unless it's an import.

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  9. Being American, I've only know the Sunday start calender. Living in Paris, my Malden has a Monday start calender. It takes a bit of an adjustment (what doesn't here? ;). I draw a colored line down the Saturday column to tell my brain that is when the weekend begins.

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  10. Following a data deletion 'episode' with my BlackBerry on Wednesday, I've taken a decision to get all my contact info into my Hampstead. Can anyone recommend a decent stand-alone address book program which will print out onto FF plain pre-punched single sheet paper? I don't do cutting and punching, so the last part is non-negotiable.

    I'm guessing the FF address book software would be the place to start, but I don't know the print capabilities.

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    1. I recently purchased this program. It is working well for printing my database. I emailed with Steve several weeks ago and he informed me that Filofax support would be non existent. I have not had any problems to date.

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    2. Many thanks Patricia.......I assume you're printing onto single sheet pre-punched Personal sized FF paper?

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    3. Do you sync your Blackberry to Outlook? Outlooks has several Filofax friendly print layouts. In the US version, it's called Day Timer Portable - same size as FF.

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    4. Thanks Bree - yes, it is, or can be, synced to Outlook, although I no longer use Outlook as my go-to email client as Thunderbird has far quicker search options on my 28,000 archived incoming emails!. I'll definitely check out what options are available on the UK version.

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    5. David, I printed my contacts direct from Outlook when I had the A5 Cuban. It worked perfectly. Haven't tried it since, but like you, I have been planning to do this for a few weeks so I will test it on Sunday and email you the results. I just reinstalled the FF Address book software yesterday and I have to say, it is looking VERY dated. U last used it in about 2006 and I was severely constrained when I realised you have to manually add each additional person, from outlook (or whatever system) to the FF file, to update it.

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    6. Also, I haven't used it personally but I have heard great things about clickbook, which has lots more functionality than the FF address book software, but has lots more choices and is more customisable. If you don't get a solution with outlook, I'd check clickbook before paying for the FF software.

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    7. Hi Paul, great to hear from you. I'm printing onto Personal as opposed to A5, but what I *think* I've decided to do is to go the 'long way' of handwriting info into the Hampstead as I foresee I need it. I realise this is going to lead to some 'info not immediately available' issues, but i have about 450 addresses in Outlook, and I'm *pretty* sure that of those at least 350 are seldom if ever used. So resorting to hand writing 'as needed' will enable me to thin out the address book to manageable levels. If all else fails I can always back-track and find a print solution!

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  11. My 2 page per week personal calendar starts on Monday. I am in the US and I love that I can plan my business week (which need more notes) and then plan my weekend. The small space for the weekend is perfect for me.

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  12. I tried to use the Preference Collection week on two pages insert this year but I had to switch to a different insert. The Preference one has equal space for each day and I like the way it looks. However, I need more room on the week days so I am using the Dayrunner one. It has the times and lines with smaller weekends. I prefer a Monday start day on the week insert. The Preference month insert starts on Monday but my Franklin Covey month calendar in my A5 Filofax starts on Sunday. I think that most month calendars sold by companies in the U.S. start on Sunday. I have seen some smaller companies produce month calendars that started on Sunday. Then they changed it to Monday. I also saw a bound notebook planner that has the week and month calendar on the same page. I think the right page is 5 1/2 by 8 1/2 inches. The left page has columns for Monday through Wednesday. There are times and space between the hours and additional lined space for the week days. The left page has a fold out month calendar. I don't remember the name of it. I looked at my search history and did not see it. I clicked on one day and it would not open. That has happened before and I don't know what causes it.

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  13. I make my own 2PPD and start on Mondays. It's easier for me to see the work week together and the weekend together. My 2PPW are that way too, and they are from Day Runner, and my 2PPM are that way and they are Day Timer. It's all in the personal size.

    I am not bound to a company...especially if it doesn't have what I want in the way that I want it.

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  14. Like many places in the Middle East, our working week starts on Sunday and finishes on Thursday. It makes it quite frustrating with FF diaries, as there's not a lot of space for Sunday, which is our working day, and lots for Friday which is our weekend. Great if you have loads of socialising to do, but not so great when Sunday is your busiest day of the week and there's hardly any space!

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  15. I prefer my week to start on Sunday but if it starts on Monday it doesn't bother much, which is odd because I'm so picky.

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  16. Hello, I am a Filofax neophyte and I am having a silly issue with my diary: my week starts on Monday, sure, but, being a Mum, I have plenty to write on weekends too, and there isn't any space there. I have just bought my beautiful Saffiano Personal, and feel quite bemused because all the diaries on Filofax.co.uk have four or five holes, but my Saffiano's page have six. What can I do? Does it exist a diary with the page on two weeks but having Saturday and Sunday as wide as the other days? Thanks for your help.

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    1. Be assured the personal size insert will be the right size and have 6 holes in it!

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  17. It makes more sense to start the week on Monday for me but growing up in America it confuses the heck out of me. At a quick glance my Wednesday and Thursdays are always mixed up.

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  18. Perhaps it's because I'm from England, but the concept of a Sunday-start is really strange to me!
    I also started the year in a lines WO2P, but I'm now in an unlined Cotton Cream WO2P with equal space for each day, and it's perfect! I'll never use anything else again!

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  19. Since I work Monday to Friday, whether my inserts start on a Sunday or a Monday doesn't really matter too much to me. However, I will NEVER buy a set of inserts that don't have the SAME start day for all their formats (yearly, weekly, monthly, and so on). I don't understand why companies insist on producing Monday-start Wo2P and Sunday-start Mo2P. It's probably just tradition or the way they've always done it, but it really bugs me!

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  20. I wish you could choose when ordering your inserts - to start with any day you please. I have a co-parenting schedule with my ex and we 'switch' on Friday. So a week with my son is from Friday evening till Friday morning, weeks starting on a Saturday would be ideal for me. Better fiddle around with the do-it-yourself inserts again...

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  21. I've always used Sunday start because that was what was available but I would much prefer Monday start. Why in the world would you split the weekend? Monday's the first day of the week, for Pete's sake.

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  22. I was raised using calendars that start with Sunday, but I prefer starting with Monday. It's a lot more logical and I like having Saturday and Sunday together

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