How to Setup Workweek Days in Outlook

What “Workweek Days” Means in Outlook Calendar

The “workweek days” in Outlook are the days you designate as your core working days — for instance, Monday through Friday, or perhaps Tuesday through Saturday, depending on your schedule. When you set your workweek days, Outlook uses them for visibility in views (such as Work Week view), for free/busy availability (how others see when you’re available), and for scheduling suggestions. Workweek settings are part of your calendar options along with your work hours and first day of the week.

By default, Outlook typically uses Monday through Friday as workweek days, with a workday from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM (or similar). Many users will want to customize that to match their actual schedule,  for example, if they don’t work on Fridays, or if they work weekends.

Setting your workweek ensures that:

• Work Week view displays exactly the days you care about
• Meeting scheduling tools and availability checking align with your workdays
• You avoid seeing days that aren’t relevant in some calendar views
• Printouts and calendar exports may emphasize workdays

Thus, customizing your workweek is useful both for usability and for accurate visible availability.

Setting Workweek Days in Outlook Desktop (Windows)

Here is how you set or change your workweek days in the Outlook application for Windows (classic Outlook / Microsoft 365):

1. Open Outlook on your computer.
2. Click the File tab (upper left corner).
3. In the sidebar, click Options to open Outlook Options.
4. In the Options window, select Calendar in the left pane.
5. In the Calendar settings section, scroll to find Work Time (or similar labeling).
6. Under Work Time, you will see checkboxes for each day of the week (Sunday through Saturday). These checkboxes represent which days are considered part of your workweek. Select the days you work (for example Monday through Thursday), and clear checkboxes for days you don’t work (for example Friday, Saturday).
7. Also in that same section, you can adjust your Start time and End time for your workday. While this is not strictly workweek days, they are logically grouped in the same settings pane.
8. Optionally, set the First day of week for your calendar (this controls how the calendar grid is aligned).
9. After making your selections, click OK or Save to apply the changes.

Once this is done, Outlook treats those days you checked as your working days in views and scheduling logic. The Work Week view will reflect exactly the days you selected, and free/busy availability should align accordingly.  Be sure to test by switching to Work Week view — you should now see only your selected days in the calendar grid.  In older versions of Outlook, these settings are similarly accessible via File → Options → Calendar, then under a section called Work Time or Work Hours in Calendar settings. Outlook allows you to pick which days are part of your work week and set your working hours accordingly. (This behavior is documented by Microsoft support in their “Set the first day of week and change calendar work days” guidance.)

Setting Workweek Days in Outlook Web / Outlook Online

If you use Outlook in the browser (Office 365 / Outlook.com), you can also set your workweek days so that the web calendar reflects your preferences.

Here’s how to do it through the web interface:

1. Log into your Outlook / Microsoft 365 account via browser.
2. Click the Settings (gear) icon, and then choose View all Outlook settings (or Settings → Mail / Calendar / General → View all settings depending on UI version).
3. In settings, navigate to Calendar settings, then to Work hours and location (or a similarly named subsection).
4. In the Work hours settings, you should see options to select which weekdays are part of your workweek. Check the days you work, uncheck those you don’t.
5. For each day, you can set start and end times if the new interface allows per‑day work hours. (Some recent updates let you pick different hours on different days.)
6. Save the changes.

After you save, the web calendar will respect your workweek settings. The Work Week view on the web will show only the days you selected. When you use scheduling assistant features or propose meetings, your availability will reflect that workweek.

Notably, Microsoft has introduced more advanced “work hours and location” features in the new Outlook and Outlook Web, allowing you to map remote/in-office status and to choose different hours per day. The settings interface is labeled Work hours and location in the new Outlook or Outlook for the web environment.

Workweek Behavior and Impact in Outlook Views & Scheduling

After setting your workweek days, its effects manifest in several parts of Outlook:

• Work Week view now shows only the days you marked as working days. For example, if you removed Friday, Work Week view will show Monday through Thursday.
• Scheduling Assistant / Meeting tools consider only your working days (and hours) as your ideal available times, which helps when proposing meeting times with others.
• Free/Busy status uses your workday hours generally within those workweek days.
• Time selection / default start times when creating new appointments may default to times within your work hours.
• Printing / layout of calendar views or exported calendars may emphasize or hide non‑work days depending on settings.
• First day of week setting, also in the same calendar options, ensures your calendar grid starts on the day you prefer (for example Monday or Sunday), which can align well with your workweek days.

Be aware: if you view a full Week view (rather than Work Week), Outlook will still show all days (Sunday through Saturday) unless you are in Work Week mode.  Similarly, if you use Month view or Agenda view, non‑work days will still appear, but they may be less emphasized or dimmer in color (depending on your theme or settings).  The calendar engine uses your designated workweek days to interpret availability, show meeting suggestions, and align partner availability windows when scheduling.

Recent Changes

While setting workweek days is straightforward, there are several caveats and evolving behaviors you should know:

1. Uniform working hours vs per‑day variation
   In many Outlook versions, the work hours you set apply identically across all of your workweek days. You cannot assign different start/end times for, say, Mondays vs Thursdays. That feature has been requested by users but is often not available in classical versions. Some newer interfaces (Outlook Web / new Outlook) are introducing more granular options. Users ask whether they can set different hours per day, and responses indicate that newer Outlook allows per‑day variation in “Work hours and location” settings. (File > Options > Calendar > Work hours and location)
2. Workweek settings may not always carry over between client versions
   If you set workweek days in Outlook on the web, sometimes the desktop client may not immediately reflect the change until synchronization or restart. Similarly, new Outlook client updates have occasionally changed UI and setting placement, meaning you may need to re‑locate the workweek setting.
3. Work week view not always updating
   Some users report that even after changing workweek days, Outlook’s Work Week view still shows a different set of days (e.g. a Friday missing). That can be due to caching or UI bugs in certain Outlook versions.
4. “New Outlook” vs classic Outlook differences
   The newer Outlook interface (especially for Microsoft 365) adds “Work hours and location” settings that allow you to share certain days or remote/in-office status. The legacy “Work time” dialog in classic Outlook remains for backward compatibility. Some UI elements and setting names differ in new Outlook.
5. All-day events and non-work days
   Workweek settings do not prevent you from scheduling events on non-work days — they simply exclude those days from the Work Week view and scheduling suggestions. If you create a meeting on a weekend, Outlook will allow it; it just won’t treat it as part of your working week.
6. Print / export views may still include non-work days
   When printing or exporting calendar views (weekly, monthly), some styles or export formats may still show all days regardless of your workweek setting. You may need to adjust print options (e.g. “Only print workdays”) if available.
7. Mobile behavior
   In Outlook mobile apps, workweek day settings might not have a direct analog or control; the app may default to a generic view or follow the server/work account settings. Always check your mobile behavior to make sure it’s acceptable.

Because of these caveats, it’s wise to verify after setting your workweek across the different Outlook platforms you use (desktop, web, mobile).

Best Practices When Choosing and Using Workweek Days

To get the most out of workweek customization, follow these practices:

• Reflect your true working days
  Choose days you actually work and are available. Don’t include days you are rarely around; excluding them improves clarity.
• Align meeting availability with those days
  Having correct workweek days means when others look at your availability, they won’t propose meetings on your “off” days by default.
• Synchronize across devices
  After changing in one client (desktop or web), open your calendar in other clients and confirm the workweek days reflect the change.
• Test Work Week view
  After setting, switch to Work Week view and confirm you see exactly the days you chose — no extra, no missing.
• Adjust first day of week
  In the same settings dialog, also set your preferred first day of week (e.g. Monday or Sunday) so calendar grids align with your workweek.
• Be cautious with weekends or irregular schedules
  If your schedule includes weekends or rotating workdays, consider whether the static workweek days setting suits your pattern or whether you’ll frequently need to override.
• Use scheduling tools with awareness
  Even if workweek days are set, when you accept or propose meetings outside those days, manually verify that you are okay with that time.
• Communicate to your team
  If you exclude a typical weekday (e.g. you don’t work Fridays), let collaborators know so they don’t expect you to be free then.
• Revisit settings periodically
  If your schedule changes, you may want to update workweek days. Don’t settle on settings you no longer use.

Defining your workweek days in Outlook helps align calendar visibility, meeting scheduling logic, and your personal workflow to your real working schedule. The process varies slightly between desktop (classic Outlook), web Outlook, and newer interface versions, but the core idea is the same: select which weekdays count as your “work week” and optionally set workday start/end times.

Key points:

• Workweek days are set in Outlook’s calendar options under Work Time / Work Hours settings.
• In desktop Outlook: File → Options → Calendar → Work Time.
• In Outlook Web / Microsoft 365: Settings → Calendar → Work hours & location.
• Check/uncheck the days you work; set your start and end times.
• The Work Week view, scheduling assistant, availability tools and visual calendar display will reflect your chosen days.
• Be mindful of limitations (uniform hours across days, mobile behavior, meeting invite behavior).
• Confirm your selection in both desktop and web clients and test with Work Week view.
• Communicate your schedule to team and update it when your work pattern changes.