When I began my career, I was in radio. Initially, I thought my job was to step into the studio and play whatever music I thought would make me and my audience happy. But before my shift began, my Boss introduced me to the ‘Format Clock.’
A Format Clock was a clock face drawn on a piece of paper divided up like pieces of a pie into sections. Starting at the top of the hour and spinning a complete circle, each segment told me what to do. My Boss explained it like this.
There are some songs that people love, and we play a lot. We want to introduce new songs to our audience, and there are old songs that people want to hear again. Your job is to rotate through each category so our listeners are always happy.
Later in life, I realized that our day-to-day activities are very similar.
There are some things we love to do more than others.
There are new things that arrive in our life that excite us.
There are traditions, rituals, and memories of the past that make us feel happy.
Your goal for any particular day is to rotate through the things that you happy and productive, moving closer to your destination, and allowing you to live with a content state of mind.