Source: TV411: Episode 116
Funding for the VITAL/Ready to Teach collection was secured through the United States Department of Education under the Ready to Teach Program.
In this video segment from TV411, WNBA basketball star, Olympia Scott Richardson, describes how she is able to keep track of all her activities and commitments by using a handheld electronic organizer. Richardson is a professional basketball player, mother, writer, and has started a music business, too. We follow her through a typical day to see how she uses some different techniques to manage her time effectively.
Here are some Frame, Focus and Follow-up suggestions for using this video in a math lesson.
What is Frame, Focus and Follow-up?
Frame: How do you plan or organize your day? Do you use a schedule? How is a calendar helpful in organizing your activities? Is a clock helpful when creating a schedule? Is it necessary?
Focus: While watching this video segment, note how Olympia organizes the activities she wants to accomplish in a day. How does she prioritize, or rank, the items on her to-do list?
Follow Up: What tools does Olympia use to help her with scheduling? How much time does she spend each day playing basketball? Outside of school, what activity do you spend the most time doing? What are the benefits of having a schedule?
OLYMPIA: Oh. Hi guys, ready for a busy day? Hi, my name is Olympia Scott Richardson. I play for the Utah Stars.
NARRATOR: Olympia is a true WNBA supermom. With the help of husband, Al, she successfully balances motherhood, professional basketball as well as a budding writing and recording career. How does she do it?
OLYMPIA: I don't go anywhere with out this--my electronic organizer. It keeps my date book, phone numbers, task list. I can keep track of all kinds of things especially future events, like they give us a whole schedule for a month in advance and it helps me to have it on here so when people say 'What time do we have to get into Houston?' I can say 'Oh wait a second I have it right here'.
NARRATOR: Although Olympia uses an electronic organizer, you can use the traditional day planner. Most planners include a weekly or daily calendar, an address book and even a memo pad to make to-do lists. So let's look at a typical day.
OLYMPIA: My daughter BreAzia was born April 7, 1999. She gets up around 6:30 and we're basically up with her for of the morning. I usually shower and everything in the seven o'clock hour and then I bathe BreAzia, I eat breakfast then I go to practice.
AL: And when she's gone, obviously there's no one else to do it but me, and when she's here I try to do as much as I can to make it easier for her.
NARRATOR: By 8:30 a.m., while Al watches the baby, it's time to head off to practice. It's about a twenty minute drive, so by 9 a.m. Olympia is front and center. She has from nine to ten to get in some extra shooting practice before her teammates arrive.
OLYMPIA: I usually go in and I shoot around some and then we stretch as a team twenty minutes before practice starts. And then we practice for an hour and a half, or so.
NARRATOR: By twelve noon, Olympia has returned home from practice and fixed lunch. She's blocked off from two to three to spend some time writing her book.
OLYMPIA: The book I'm writing is a women's journal for mothers who recently had children, trying to lose weight, just trying to get back into the swing of things. Sometimes it's tough. Post-partum depression sometimes occurs, not wanting to leave your child, but wanting to get back in the rat race. I think it's somewhat therapeutic to be able to write these things down also for other people to draw strength from it.
NARRATOR: Olympia makes to-do lists daily and revises them as things come up during her busy life. Oh and don't forget the satisfaction she gets from checking things off as she does them.
OLYMPIA: Yeah. I like when I can go through and check 'Complete'. Sometimes I go and do something right there, then I can check something else off and it does make you feel accomplished.
NARRATOR: So much to finish in a day, Olympia finds it helpful to rank her tasks according to importance.
OLYMPIA: The way I rank each priority or each task is: 'A' things are basically things that I have to do, 'B' is things that I should do, 'C' is like I could do. So it depends on how much time I have in the day or if I just want to delegate it to another day.
NARRATOR: It's 3 p.m and Olympia and Al spend an hour listening to music for the record they're starting. Olympia's day is far from over. It's 4:30 p.m. and time for a mandatory pre-game session.
OLYMPIA: It's hard because I want to be a full time mom, but then I also have a basketball dream. I wish I didn't have to choose. I'd rather be able to be with her instead of having to go to work. Some days I'm like running late and I come back and kiss her three more times and then it's like okay I got to get out of here.
NARRATOR: It's 6 p.m and Olympia arrives at the Delta Center for tonight's game. After a jam-packed day, Olympia finds the energy to do one of the things that she does best, play basketball.
OLYMPIA: Alright guys. Thanks for hanging out, but it's game time. Got to go to work.