It's About Time

Pat Summitt

Head coach
Lady Volunteers
University of Tennessee
Knoxville, Tennessee

Time is different in basketball than it is in many other sports. The clock runs down; you're literally racing against time. I think that's true not only on the court but also in life. So, to manage time effectively, you have to start with the big picture.

Time management is one of the first skills that we teach our players, because it helps them to know their priorities and to clarify what they stand for. At the beginning of the year, we give them a calendar on which they keep track of their school vacations, assignments, and exam dates, along with our game and practice schedules. Unless there's an unforeseen emergency, players aren't allowed to miss a single class throughout the school year, and in class they must sit in one of the first three rows. The same principle applies to practice sessions. We call this the "no-miss, up-front rule." It teaches them about responsibility -- both on the court and off.

When it comes to dealing with time in a game, you always start with a plan. But games never go the way that you envision that they will. So you have to learn quickly from your mistakes and to change your approach accordingly. Basketball is very much about momentum, and if things are going badly, you need to change that momentum with a time-out. I've learned that to communicate well during a 90-second time-out, I have to focus not on myself or on what I'm feeling, but on what my team is feeling. So, as a coach, I try to empty myself of my own emotions, and I try to convey -- through words, tone, and body language -- whatever message my players need to hear.

Pat Summitt has been head coach of the Lady Volunteers for 25 years. During that time, she has won six national championships -- twice as many as any other NCAA women's-basketball coach. Within the NCAA, her record is surpassed only by former UClA men's coach John Wooden, who won 10 national titles.

Robert A.M. Stern

Founder and senior partner, Robert A.M. Stern Architects
Dean, Yale School of Architecture
New York, New York and New Haven, Connecticut

If you're an architect, and you can't manage your time, then why should anyone believe that you can manage a budget? I practice two main principles of time management -- both in architecture and in academia. The first is to be prepared. I have students who come to my office and ask for 10 minutes of my time. Then they stand there -- shuffling, mumbling, and beating around the bush because they are unprepared -- while I stare at the ceiling in embarrassment, wishing that they'd hurry up. Even though I enjoy face-to-face discussions, I find that people are more direct when communicating by email or fax.

Which leads me to my second principle: Get to the point. I've been to presentations at which architects start off by telling jokes, or by alluding to a golf game or a cocktail party that they've recently attended. I want to say, "Get on with it, and while you're at it, get a life."

I keep my own presentations simple. I show my design, and then I take the client through the process by which I arrived at it. And I organize my thoughts beforehand, so that if someone interrupts me with a question, my answer is succinct and meaningful, and I can quickly get back on track.

Robert A.M. Stern is an architect, a teacher, and a writer. Best known for his residential design, Stern has also designed such projects as Walt Disney's feature animation building in Burbank, California and the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. He is coauthor of a series of books on the history of architecture and urbanism in New York City, including "New York 1880" (Monacelli Press, 1999).

Irwin Winkler

Producer and director Los Angeles, California

Time is money in any business -- and that is particularly true in the film industry. A movie's production budget is based on time -- on how much time you're going to need the services of set dressers, makeup artists, gaffers, and everyone else on the crew. I've never been over budget on a film that I directed -- for three reasons. One, I plan thoroughly. Two, I'm realistic and honest about what will be required. And three, I plan for unforeseen events. In the film industry (as in other industries), we call such events "contingencies," and I plan for them by padding the budget.

You hear horror stories about films going millions of dollars over budget. That happens because directors frequently underestimate the resources that they'll need, or because they don't plan carefully. Martin Scorsese is wonderfully organized. He puts together a storyboard that outlines everything that he wants to do. That's why all of the intricate camera moves that you see in his films look so smooth -- and why they're accomplished without going over budget.