Priorities of Work: The Order That Keeps You Alive
At Squatch Survival Gear, we don’t just talk about survival — we train for it. Whether you’re setting up a patrol base in the woods or securing your home after a storm, priorities of work decide if you thrive or just survive.
When chaos hits, it’s not the gear that saves you — it’s what you do first, the gear just helps.
🧭 What Are Priorities of Work?
“Priorities of work” is a term pulled straight from the field manual — the order of tasks a team performs when setting up camp, defending a position, or trying to get their bearings in hostile terrain.
It’s a simple truth learned the hard way: you can’t do everything at once, and time wasted on the wrong task could get someone hurt or worse, and usually does get someone hurt.
When everything goes sideways, order equals survival.
🔒 1. Secure the Perimeter
Before anything else, establish security.
That means 360° awareness — visual, audible, and physical. In the field, that might be assigning sectors of fire or setting trip lines. In the civilian world, it could be locking doors, posting a lookout, or positioning your pack within reach while you rest.
Pro Tip: Keep your essentials in a chest pack like The Gnome or a compact Night Howler EDC. You don’t want to dig through a ruck when seconds count.
🔥 2. Build Shelter and Fire
Once you’re secure, handle exposure to the elements.
Wind, cold, and rain can kill faster than hunger. Set up a tarp, poncho, or natural cover. Get your fire going — for heat, cooking, or morale.
A firebiner or a small waterproof tinder pouch stored in your Mothman Pack can be the difference between shivering and surviving.
💧 3. Water and Food
Dehydration kills performance. Collect, filter, and ration water before worrying about meals. As we have discussed in previous blogs you can go a month without food but only days without that sweet H2O. Use inline filters, carry purification tablets, and stash high-calorie, low-bulk food like XMREs.
Squatch Tip: Modular hydration pouches fit perfectly in our Berry-compliant American-made backpacks, giving you access to clean water without unpacking your load.
📡 4. Communication and Coordination
No one survives alone forever.
Whether it’s radio check-ins, mirror signaling, or simple whistle blasts, establish how your group talks and moves. In tactical environments, comms mean control. In the wild, they mean rescue. As an old infantry company commander used to say, if we can't talk what's the point?". Heck even Bigfoot uses woodknocks and howls to communicate.
Our Windstorm Whistle packs 123 decibels of signal power and fits any MOLLE-mounted admin pouch — because your voice only carries so far.
🛠️ 5. Gear Maintenance and Recovery
Once your basic needs are secure, it’s time to check your tools.
Wipe your knife, dry your gear, reload batteries, and repack your American-made tactical survival backpack. Neglect kills equipment — and equipment failure kills people.
A five-minute inspection now saves you hours of pain later.
😴 6. Rest and Refit
Fatigue is silent and deadly. Rotate watch, eat something warm, and rest.
That’s where morale gear — your Woobie Hoodie, dry socks, or even a beanie — earns its keep. Lack of sleep impacts decision-making capabilities and long-term endurance.
Sleep builds judgment, and judgment is survival.
⚙️ The Squatch Survival Gear Priority of Work Mindset
Every mission, every storm, every day in the field — you’ll face a dozen things screaming for attention.
But not everything is critical.
Start with security.
Then handle shelter, fire, water, and comms.
Only then do you move on to rest and recovery.
Because if you can’t defend it, you can’t keep it.
💪 Your Gear Should Work Like You Do
At Squatch Survival Gear, our packs and pouches are built to serve the same mindset: do the right thing in the right order.
From The Gnome Chest Pack for rapid-access essentials to the Mothman Backpack for full-day operations, every piece we make is designed for structure, not chaos.
American-made. Berry-compliant. Veteran-built. Ready when real life gets hard.