Top tips for Organisation for middle leaders

[Maidupmum]

I'm facilitating some training tomorrow for middle leaders in primary schools and I was wondering what your top tips are for not becoming bogged down with the workload. I'm usually a HT so I don't already have one of these presentations up my sleeve and I haven't had time this week (or last week, or the week before) to do as much research as I'd like to. I'd also like to 'keep it real' and will more than likely name-check Mumsnet
I'll give mine first;

1. Find your 'good enough' switch

I can't base a whole presentation on that so please help me!

Learn to prioritise

I use a grid Like a Carroll Diagram so things are urgent & important, urgent not important, not urgent & important, not urgent & nor important.

It sounds silly but it really helps me with organisation - a lot of the time the urge but not important stuff can be delegated.

Try and set up really effective communications systems in within the team you are managing

I know this is too late for you now, but I only MN on my phone in the week (and I haven't logged back on since Jeffreygate on there) so I couldn't reply before.

I split my to-do list into 3 categories - things that can only be done in school when the children are in (ie working with them), things that can only be done in school but can be done when the children aren't there (performance management, book scrutiny, meetings with colleagues, photocopying) and things which can be done at home (planning, marking)

Then I allocate job to time slots. That way I make maximum use of my PPA and don't end up using it to do something I could do at home in the evening in front of the TV. I also find that I cope with a very busy workload much better when I know when I'm going to do things - I get a rising feeling of panic/sickness when I know I've got things to do but don't know when they are going to be done. By allocating time slots to them I can mentally park them until I get to that time - I can then concentrate on other things until then. It also means that important jobs don't get forgotten. It's too easy for jobs to slip - it really doesn't matter if I email out new resources for my subject tonight or tomorrow or at the weekend. But by planning when they are going to happen, they happen.

Is that the kind of thing you were looking for?!? Might be useful for next time...