Depending on where you live or what industry you work in, the start of your week might not align with the standard calendar layout. In North America, the traditional calendar week begins on Sunday. However, for many businesses, students, and European users, the functional week begins on Monday. If you rely on Google Calendar to manage your schedule, viewing a Sunday-first calendar can be visually confusing when planning your workweek. Fortunately, you can easily change the first day of the week to match your personal or professional preferences.
How to Change the First Day of the Week
You can adjust this setting from the main Google Calendar web interface. Once you change it on your desktop, the new layout will automatically sync to your mobile devices.
- Open your web browser, navigate to calendar.google.com, and ensure you are logged into your Google account.
- Look in the top-right corner of the screen and click on the Gear icon (Settings menu).
- From the drop-down menu that appears, select Settings.
- On the left-hand sidebar, look for the “General” section and click on View options.
- The main screen will scroll down to the viewing preferences. Look for the drop-down menu labeled Start week on.
- Click the drop-down menu and select your preferred starting day (e.g., Monday).
Immediate Visual Changes
Google Calendar saves your changes automatically the moment you select a new day from the drop-down menu. You do not need to click a “Save” button.
When you click the back arrow (top left corner) to return to your main calendar view, you will instantly notice the structural change. If you use the “Week” or “Month” view, the entire grid will shift. For example, if you selected Monday, the far-left column will now display all your Monday appointments, pushing Saturday and Sunday (the weekend) neatly to the far-right side of the screen. This grouping makes it much easier to visualize your five-day work sprint separate from your weekend downtime.