TOPGUN'S TOP 10 by Guy M Snodgrass

Author:Guy M Snodgrass [M. SNODGRASS, GUY]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Center Street
Published: 2020-09-15T00:00:00+00:00

The author in a F/A-18E Super Hornet shortly after taxiing onto the runway to take off from Naval Air Facility Atsugi, a joint Japanese–U.S. air base approximately twenty-four miles southwest of Tokyo.

CHAPTER SIX

DON’T CONFUSE ACTIVITY WITH PROGRESS

“Volume of work doesn’t equal quality of work.”

ANY TOPGUN INSTRUCTOR leads a life marked by perpetual motion.

Our daily routine meant we started early, arriving at the office before 6 a.m. to prepare for our first flight brief or lecture. We didn’t leave until our last flight had been debriefed and the grade sheet completed, usually after 10 p.m. Time was so precious that we commonly found ourselves feasting on a “fighter pilot’s breakfast”—a Snickers bar washed down with a can of soda—and most days we barely carved out time for lunch before dashing off to the next event. Throughout the day there were the usual emails, meetings, and phone calls associated with our job.

Our frenetic pace usually required putting in a full day of work on Saturday to catch up on paperwork or to prepare for the next week’s agenda—or both. If we were murderboarding, we were probably grinding it out for part of Sunday, too, which gave us little or no time off during the week.

We were also frequently on the road, teaching students during training detachments at another air base, developing our own tactics, or working alongside instructors from the U.S. Air Force, Navy SEALs, or the intelligence community.

I was lucky—my wife, Sarah, had a job as a graphic designer supporting TOPGUN, which meant she and I worked in the same building. It was a good thing, too. She saw me far more frequently at work than at home, and even that wasn’t often.

The long hours and heavy travel schedule made it necessary for instructors to be effective and efficient with our time. We couldn’t waste a second. If we frittered away our time, things piled up. As a relatively small, nimble staff with significant responsibilities, everyone had to carry their load.

Which brings us to a related—and often underappreciated—skill: prioritizing. With so many tasks competing for our time, we needed to sift through the to-do list to tackle both the “quick kills” as well as those deemed most important. A quick interaction with another instructor helped teach me how best to employ my time.

She was a senior instructor on the TOPGUN staff. Catching me in the hallway as I discussed the number of tasks on my plate, she offered to pass along a few pointers before waving me to follow her into one of the briefing rooms. Grabbing a marker, she marched up to the whiteboard and drew a huge square. Inside that square she drew a large plus sign, creating two columns and two rows.

To the left of the top row she wrote the word “important.” Below it, to the left of the second row, she wrote “not important.” Moving to the top of the chart, she wrote “urgent” above the left column and then “not urgent” above the right one.

Glancing

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