For me, it's kind of an ellipse in front. The spring is on the right, the fall is on the left, the summer is on the top, and winter below. When i think of a date, i look at where that date is located. And vice-versa, the events are located somewhere, and looking at them gives me the date.
Kind of like this http://i.imgur.com/7PJMf9O.png
I later worked out a way to tell the day of the week by a date based on this.
Every month is marked depending on the offset of it's first day from january's (assuming january starts on thursday, which is 0). For me it's | - -/ --| kind of symbol marks, on one side or the other of the ellipse, which denotes the 0, 1, 2 and 3 days off.
Next is an image like that that you need to memorize: http://i.imgur.com/dpfn2lX.png - a month on a calendar page, monday thru sunday, with thursday in the center. 1, 8, 15, 22, 29 are the centreline of thursdays.
2016 starts on friday, the offset of the year is +1, and it's a leap year, so every month after feburary gets another +1.
Today is June 12th, 2016.
June is -3 (look at the year ellipse).
12th is -3 (look at the image #2 ).
2016 is +1 and leap year is +1 (have to keep in mind).
Sum it up, you get -3-3+1+1 = -4, ring it 7 is +3. Add to thursday, and it's sunday.
Another example: September 13th, 2014.
September is -2.
13th is -2.
2014 is -1.
Add up to -5, ring it 7 to get +2, which is saturday.
It may sound hard, but a few hours of practice would make it automatic, especially if you are a visual type.