How to set your Chromebook’s Calendar View widget to start on Mondays

Ever since Google introduced the Calendar View widget to ChromeOS in version 104, many discussions have been had about how to improve it. One of the most requested features for it, besides having the ability to integrate all of your Google Calendars, is how to change the starting day of the week to Monday instead of Sunday. Many thought this setting could be controlled by changing your weekly start day directly in Calendar, but unfortunately, this did not translate to switching it on the widget.

Fortunately, the question came up again on Reddit, where u/guzman77 offered a solution he came across by trying to do the opposite and changing his start day to Sunday instead. This solution was spotted by About Chromebooks, who reported on it. The trick relies on changing your Chromebook’s device language to that of a location where Monday is considered the first day of the week.

This realization took me down an interesting rabbit hole. As an American, I’ve always known Sunday to be the first official day of the week in the calendar, while Monday is the first day of the working week. But, unbeknownst to me, there are places in the world where Monday is actually the first official day of the week. It all has to do with ISO 8601 – an international standard covering the worldwide exchange and communication of date and time-related data – which established that the first day of the week is Monday in the Gregorian calendar. However, although the United States uses the Gregorian calendar as well, it follows the ancient and religious custom of considering Saturday (the Sabbath) the last day of the week and Sunday the most important and thus the first day.

This solution, thus not officially one or a problem that affects anyone outside of the U.S., requires that you choose a language other than “English (United States)” in your language settings. Here’s how you do it:

Change your ChromeOS device language

In your Chromebook settings, navigate to the “Languages and inputs” section. Once there, tap on the first option, which is for the device language, not to be confused with your input and keyboard language. This will bring up a popup to select a language from a long list. For English speakers, type in “English” in the search field, and select “English (Canada)” from the search results.

You will be prompted to confirm and restart for the change to take effect. Once your Chromebook restarts, you will notice that the calendar view widget will now show Monday as the first day of the week, as well as show the order in which the date appears underneath in “Day Month” format instead of “Month Day” as customary in the U.S.

I just want the steps!

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1. In your Chromebook’s settings, navigate to the “Languages and inputs” section.
2. Tap on the first option, which is for the device language.
3. For English, type in “English” in the search field.
4. Select “English (Canada)” from the options.
5. Confirm and restart your Chromebook.