The Debrief and Autopsy

The Debrief and Autopsy is a habit I carried over from my days in the military. No matter how perfectly you think you may have executed a task or mission, a quick analysis can always show areas for improvement.

When a task or project falters, the (hopefully) automatic reaction is to do a thorough failure analysis, but you should also conduct a quick autopsy on even the most successful ones.  

Here's an example of how I apply this concept to every activity (even recreational ones):  For stress relief, I fly a virtual Cessna in a flight simulator usually taking off at DeKalb Peachtree and landing at Hartsfield-Jackson. Although I've made that flight a million times now, each time my "game" session is over I do a playback and autopsy of that flight.  I take away the excitement (or boredom) of what is happening out the window of the plane and just focus on what the instruments were telling me. Since it is tied to real-time weather, every flight is unique.  Then I watch my landing from the perspective of a virtual chase plane and critique it. Could I have used less throttle or a different fuel/air mixture to get better gas mileage? Even what felt like a routine and perfect landing will reveal minor imperfections.

It is true that practice makes perfect, but you have to make sure you are practicing the most efficient and most correct methods or else you're actually just creating and re-enforcing bad habits.  Practice makes perfect, but try to practice perfection, not mastering the art of imperfection.