Naming quarters

When thinking about splitting the year into quarters for getting things done, the first thing I wondered about was what to call them.

I’m very keen for methods that I choose to manage tasks to not seem like work. That goes for the tools, processes and names of things.

If I’m splitting the year into quarters, they’ll each need a name, even if only for something to put at the head of a list of tasks in an app. The obvious solution is “Q1”, “Q2”, etc.

But that sounds far too much like work. Too “HA HA! BUSINESS”. “The Q3 deadline’s approaching, gotta finish this [checks notes] replacing the sealant around the lounge window!”

I believe the intrusion of business processes into personal/home lives is generally a bad thing, feeding our leisure time into the insatiable maw of capitalism. So, we’ll have no “Q4” here.

Ditching this also made me realise that there’s no requirement to stick to calendar months: January to March, April to June, etc. Maybe there are other similar divisions?

Of course there are.

We could split the year up by Quarter Days. In England:

• Lady Day (25 March, the Feast of the Annunciation);
• Midsummer Day (24 June, the Feast of the Nativity of St John the Baptist);
• Michaelmas Day (29 September, the Feast of St Michael and All Angels); and
• Christmas Day (25 December, the Feast of the Nativity of Jesus).

If we ignore those Christian feasts, having to get tasks finished before Midsummer Day sounds good, with success warranting some kind of folk-horror ceremony.

Celtic quarter days “prior to the Christianisation of Ireland in the 5th century AD” have good names and different dates:

• Imbolc (February 1)
• Beltaine (May 1)
• Lughnasadh (August 1)
• Samhain (November 1)

As do the “Old Scottish term days“:

• Candlemas (2 February)
• Whitsunday (legislatively fixed for this purpose as 15 May)
• Lammas (1 August)
• Martinmas (11 November).

But, being very English, it would feel weird to adopt either of those systems.

Michaelmas Day reminded me of hearing about “Michaelmas term” somewhere. Oxford University (and probably others) has three terms (here with the current year’s dates):

• Michaelmas - 13 Oct to 7 Dec 2024
• Hilary - 19 Jan to 15 Mar 2025
• Trinity - 27 Apr to 21 Jun 2025

Add Summer to those and we have four sort-of-quarters. Cambridge University uses:

• Michaelmas - 8 Oct to 6 Dec 2024
• Lent - 21 Jan to 21 Mar 2025
• Easter - 29 Apr to 20 Jun 2025

I remembered that Samuel Pepys refers to the four terms into which the legal year is split:

• Michaelmas term - from October to December
• Hilary term - from January to April
• Easter term - from April to May
• Trinity term - from June to July.

A bit uneven but still another option of names that, to my non-legal ears, don’t sound at all “businessy”.

If I was to go down one of these routes, maybe I’d do something like:

• Michaelmas quarter – 30 September to 25 December (Christmas)
• Hilary quarter – 2 January to 25 March (Lady Day)
• Trinity quarter – 26 March to 24 June (Midsummer Day)
• Summer quarter – 25 June to 29 September (Michaelmas Day)

Starting the year in Autumn is also a nice academic-rather-than-business thing. Years on from my last academic year, September/October still has a “start of year” feel to me.

However. This all feels like an affectation to me. Having never studied or worked anywhere that uses “Michaelmas”, “Hilary”, etc. this feels as fake to me as if I were to use “Lughnasadh” or “Lammas”.

So. I’ll ditch those names but stick with the idea of quarters based more on midsummer etc., rather than (modern) calendar dates. And instead of Midsummer Day let’s go with the actual, slightly varying, dates of equinox and solstice.

And I’ll give the quarters more boring names that I’d feel less of a tit for using:

• Winter – 21 December 2024 to 20 March 2025 (equinox)
• Spring – 21 March to 21 June (summer solstice)
• Summer – 22 June to 22 September (equinox)
• Autumn – 23 September to 21 December (winter solstice)

Yes, it’s taken me 600 words to invent seasons.