How to Become a Human Calendar

Mentally finding out the day of the week for any date is
a skill you can easily learn. You dont need to be an
autistic genius all it takes is basic memorization effort
and some trivial math.
When I first learned this technique many years ago, I did
it ust for fun. With time, I learned to enoy the
convenience of not needing a calendar anymore. Its far
more useful than I first thought, and with ust a little
!ractice, youll be able to find out the days of the week
much faster than when reaching for a calendar.
The Method
"o find out the days of the week for any date, use the
formula#
[day of week] = (yearcode + monthcode + day) mod
7
If youre not math$inclined, this may look quite scary at
first, but dont worry# using the formula is straightforward.
%ets walk through each one of of its !arts.
Month and Year Codes
"he month codes are one of the formulas most
troublesome !arts, since they dont follow a clear logic.
Well have to memorize them, but dont worry with that
ust yet, as we will focus on an easy way to do this later.
&or now, here they are for reference#
'anuary# 1
&ebruary# 4
(arch# 4
)!ril# 0
(ay# 2
'une# 5
'uly# 0
)ugust# 3
*e!tember# 6
+ctober# 1
,ovember# 4
-ecember# 6
We also need the year code, which are also a!!arently
arbitrary. You shouldnt also worry about memorizing them
at this !oint. &or now, here are the ones youll most likely
use#
.//0# 2
.//1# 3
./2/# 4
./22# 5
./2.# 0
./23# 1
Days of the Week
"he result is always a number from / to 4, and its
inter!retation couldnt be any easier#
1# *unday; 1st day of week
2# (onday; 2nd day of week, and so on.
3# "uesday
4# Wednesday
5# "hursday
6# &riday
0# *aturday
The Calculation
%et me show you how the formula works with an
e5am!le# Decemer 25! 200".
#te$ 1# 6et the codes for month and year. )ccording to
the code tables, -ecember is 6and .//0 is 2.
#te$ 2# )!!ly the numbers in the formula#
2. 7day of week8 9 :yearcode ; monthcode ; day< mod
=
.. 7day of week8 9 :. ; 4 ; .>< mod =
3. 7day of week8 9 33 mod =? see below if you don`t
know what mod is
4. 7day of week8 9 5
> means %h&rsday. "hats the day of the week for
-ecember .>, .//0.
Tips for Faster Calculation
In case youre unfamiliar with the modulo :mod< o!erator,
all it does is give you the remainder of a division. "ake, for
e5am!le, 17 mod 7. If you divide 2= by =, you get . and
a rema'nder of 3. *o, 17 mod 7 = 3.
,ow, if you dont like the idea of !erforming divisions
mentally, theres ho!e# you dont really need to divide by
= to get the numbers modulo. )ll you need is to cast out
sevens of the number. "hat is# take the closest multi!le of
seven below your number and ust take the difference
between them. &or e5am!le, in 17 mod 7, the closest
multi!le of = below 2= is 2@. Aasting 2@ out of 2=, theres
a leftover of 3. "herefore, 17 mod 7 = 3.
)n additional ti! to s!eed u! the calculation# Instead of
summing u! all the three numbers and calculating the
modulo thereafter, as the formula suggests, do it slightly
differently# dont wait until you have a big number to
calculate its modulo. (o& can cast o&t se)ens as yo&
*o+ %ets do the same calculation we did above :-ecember
.>, .//0<, but casting out sevens as we go.
2. 7day of week8 9 :. ; 4 ; .><? lets cast out sevens
for 25 before we go.
.. 7day of week8 9 :. ; 4 ; @<?
3. 7day of week8 9 :0 ; @<? lets cast out sevens for
before we go
@. 7day of week8 9 :2 ; @<?
>. 7day of week8 9 >
)lthough there are e5tra ste!s, you will always work with
small numbers, s!eeding u! the !rocess.
Adjustment for Leap Years
"he only caveat in the formula :and it had to have one,
rightB< is that there will be an adustment when dealing
with lea! years# you need to s&tract one from the
res&,t! for the months of -an&ary and .er&ary. "he
other months are calculated ust as any normal year.
Memorizing the Month Codes
"he math is !retty easy, but unless you memorize the
codes, you wont be able to !erform the entire technique
in your head. "he good news is that the month codes
never change, so you ust need to memorize them once
and reuse them over and over again. &or an easy and fun
way of memorizing lists, I strongly suggest the !egging
memory system. Well use it here, so if youre unfamiliar
with it, !lease take a look first.
&or the !eg system to work, our challenge is to come u!
with images for the months. Cere are my suggestions,
based on either similarities in word !ronunciation or on
cultural traditions.
'anuary# -acket
&ebruary# .ree/e
(arch# 0arch
)!ril# 1&nny
(ay# .,owers
'une# D&ne
'uly# -&n*,e
)ugust# 1arec&e
*e!tember# #ce$ter
+ctober# Doerman
,ovember# %&rkey
-ecember# #anta 2,a&s
If these images dont make much sense to you, feel free
to substitute by your own. Demember that the list doesnt
need to follow any !attern or logic? the only requirement
is that each association must come easily and quickly to
you.
If you did like the images I suggested, heres a gra!hical
list to hel! you visualize and memorize them as !egs#
:click for larger image<
)ll right, now that we have the !egs, the ne5t ste! is to
create fun and remarkable scenes combining the month
images with our !reviously learned number images. 'ust
to illustrate, let me give you a !ersonal e5am!le on how to
do that#
3&*&st. %ooking at our month code table, we see the
code for )ugust is 3. %ets associate barbecue :for
)ugust< with heart :for number 3<# Earbecue and heartB
"he first thing that comes to mind is a childhood memory
of the movie Indiana 'ones and the "em!le of -oom. I
always wondered what the bad guy did with those living
throbbing hearts he e5tracted from !eo!le in that dark
ritual. ,o more# what about a great barbecue outside,
with !ulsating hearts on the grill and everybody getting
drunk with kegs of Fali (as bloodG Ahildhood memories
work wonders for your memory.
"his technique only works if you use your own
imagination, so now its u! to you. )lways remember to
make it !ersonal and fun.
onus! "#tend the Techni$ue for
Any Year
&or !ractical !ur!oses, I memorize only the code for the
current year. When a new year arrives and you need its
code, you can find it !retty easily# find out the day for
current years -ecember 32th and ust sum one and youll
have the day of the week for ne5t years 'anuary 2st.
,ow, the only variable left in the formula is the year code.
-ont forget about the adustment for lea! years when
using this trick.
If, unlike myself, you want to go really wild and mentally
find out the days for any year, youll need to grow some
e5tra math and memorization muscles. Ceres the formula
for the year code#
yearcode = (cent&rycode + [,ast two d'*'ts of year]
+ ([,ast two d'*'ts of year] d') 4)) mod 7
!iv is the o!erator for integer division. 'ust
like mod gets the remainder of a division,div gets its
integer quotient. &or e5am!le, 17 d') 7 = 2 :with a
remainder of 3<.
"he cent&ry code follows a recurrent !attern, and can be
used for any date in the6regorian calendar#
24//s# 6
2=//s# 4
20//s# 2
21//s# 0
.///s# 6? re"eating the "attern
.2//s# 4; #$%$2$& "attern goes onH
With that, you have a com!lete mental calendaring
system. "his is a handy tool that, once learned, can be
used for your entire lifetime. "ry it ust once or twice, and
youll see that it really isnt as much work as it looks like.
4$date# If you want the year codes automatically
calculated for you, or sim!ly want to see the math in
action, I created a downloadable I5cel s!readsheet :@@
FE< that does e5actly that