Appointments - Do you use the correct time and date format?
Clear, unambiguous dates and times prevent missed meetings, costly travel mistakes, and confusion across countries and time zones.
“Catch up moved to 10/05 at 6. See you then”
Think about this, is that 10th of May or 5th of October? Is it 6 AM or 6 PM?
Dates - kill the ambiguity
People in different regions format the date in different ways:
Software can also misinterpret it. For example, entering 10/05/2025 on an Aussie laptop could be read as October 5th, 2025, if opened on an American system.
This is why you should avoid numeric-only formats... they can cause major confusion. To make it even clearer, include abbreviated weekdays with dates.
"This email was sent on 10/05/25."
Bad example - Use slashes on their own, it’s ambiguous
"The email was sent on Sat 10 May 2025."
Good example - Use "DD MMM YYYY" and include the abbreviated day of the week
Times - 24-hour or am/pm — both are fine (correctly!)
Use valid formats to avoid confusion - both 24-hour and 12-hour formats are universal when used correctly:
- The user group will start at 18:00 tomorrow (24-hour format)
- The user group will start at 6 PM tomorrow (12-hour format)
Good example - Correct formatting for time
- The user group will start at 6 (is this AM or PM?)
- The user group will start at 18 PM (invalid format)
- The user group will start at 6.00 PM (use of dot)
Bad example - Incorrect or ambiguous times
Avoid the 12 PM / 12 PM trap.
- Use "noon" or "midnight" to the end of the time instead of just 12:00. E.g., 12:00 noon.
- For boundaries (e.g., validity periods), avoid 00:00; use 00:01 for start and 23:59 for end (common airline practice) to remove doubt.
Always include a time zone for cross-location events: AEST (UTC+10), AEDT (UTC+11), PT (UTC–8), etc.
Extra tips
- Use leading zeros in 24-hour times: 09:05, not 9:5
- Don’t mix separators: use “:” for time, not “. “or “h.”
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It is recommended to use the ISO standard (YYYY-MM-DD) for your filenames, so they can be sorted in descending or ascending order by time
- e.g., 2025-08-15-sprint-review-notes.md
