Effective time management is a primary concern in many, if not all, professions. But in the ever-frantic school environment, it is critical. Planning and undertaking a wide variety of tasks within a specific time frame is the name of the game, whatever your role. So what does this mean for middle leaders?

Lowdown

Thinking strategically and considering the future is a key part of being a leader at any level, but so is making sure that you know what’s happening on the ground and keeping your team happy, harmonious and functioning effectively. And for a middle leader, with pressure from both directions, that’s especially the case.

So how should you split your time to ensure that both of these demands are met? How can you go about planning your schedule to make sure that the right things are getting done? And how can you balance being present without being overbearing and trying to do too much?

What we know about what works

When it comes to time management, the first and most important task, according to Bogdan Costea, professor of management and society at Lancaster University Management School, is to rid yourself of the “utopian” view that “everything can be done, everyone will be satisfied and all the boxes will be ticked”.

“It is an illusion: that situation doesn’t exist,” he says. “But what does exist is the capacity to use your time economically.”

And so, he says, that means understanding where the demands on your time are coming from.

For school middle leaders, Costea says, there are “four major constituencies that can give you headaches”. These are students, parents, school leadership and your team. And each of these four groups will bring demands that create your “queue” of tasks to be managed.

“I would suggest that your first priority as a leader is helping your people do their day-to-day jobs,” he says. “If something happens in a class that needs your intervention, you have to drop everything and intervene if required.

“The next priority is protecting your team, both from the higher-up school leadership and from unnecessary issues with parents, which can be problematic. And so protection is a key consideration, because school staff are already under such pressure.”

It can be useful to work through your key groups and your prioritisation with a mentor and your line manager for a sense check to ensure that your priorities align with the school’s goals.

When secure, this becomes the foundation stone of your time planning and time management.

Alongside this process, though, you need to emphasise the need for flexibility. A high level of flexibility around time management is crucial, explains Costea, because your queue of tasks is likely to be in a constant state of flux and, at times, changing on a moment-to-moment basis.

“There will be things that emerge in the morning that you just didn’t know about the day before,” he says. “Sometimes those things will go to the back of the queue, but sometimes they cannot and might need an answer quickly.”

Those “quick” matters may upend your agreed prioritisation list, but not addressing them for that reason could cause you bigger issues. Costea says it can be hugely valuable - and time-efficient - to follow up swiftly with the relevant team members in person, popping into their classrooms or having brief private conversations, rather than relying on lengthy email exchanges or scheduling formal meetings.

“Sometimes simply responding quickly will mean a situation is resolved in five minutes, rather than letting it fester and having people worry,” he explains.

Obviously, judgement is key here: how much of a delay is too much of a delay? You need to be able to balance constant interruptions for quick fixes with getting the big priorities finished.

This is why delegation and protected time can be so useful. But when do you need to close off from all distractions and how do you manage that time when you are not available? This should be a big factor in your time planning.

You also need to build in time to just be around, too: don’t plan every second so every part of your day is occupied. Costea talks of the idea of being a “present leader” who is around and available for staff, both as “a symbol and an accessible point”.

“You have a responsibility for that team running well,” he says. “Remember, this is not a position of power, this is a position of service. You are serving the community of which you are part.”

The experienced leader’s view

Jon Hutchinson is director of training and development at the Reach Foundation. He writes:

One night, when opening up my laptop at 10pm to get cracking with some work, my wife turned to me and said, not unkindly, “Do you think you need to manage your time a bit better?”

It was a punch in the gut, because although I very much protested that it wasn’t true, it kind of was. My boss would have been horrified if they knew I was routinely working past bedtime. 

I did need to manage my time better. The only problem was that I didn’t have the time to do it.

Middle leaders can often feel like the fabled woodsman, trying to saw down a tree with a dull blade, with no time to stop and sharpen it. 

Ultimately, what makes time management difficult for middle leaders is that so many tasks are elastic: they will stretch to fill any time available for them, and continue expanding for as long as you allow. 

This is also true for teachers’ time management, and so it’s not at all uncommon for everyone to feel like they are working too hard, leading to exhaustion and resentment.

Middle leaders can be instrumental in combatting this by creating a culture where martyrdom is frowned upon rather than celebrated. You can, and should, communicate that although the job is tough, it can be completed to a high standard within reasonable hours.

One way to achieve this is to fastidiously timetable every task, and ensure that everyone in your team does the same. 

Allocate a reasonable amount of time for critical tasks, and if they don’t fit, decide which need to go. This is especially important for subject leaders in primary, who often aren’t given any release time.

Be realistic and honest with senior leaders about what can be achieved given the time that is available. Beware of being tempted to think “we’ll find a slot for that somewhere” because that slot will inevitably be Sunday evening. 

Once tasks are timetabled, you must be disciplined with stopping once when the time is up. If you assigned an hour to do a book scrutiny, then record the key themes as you work through the sample, save the document when the hour is up and close your laptop. You may decide that you need to allocate another slot to complete the task, in which case timetable that, rather than working until the caretaker kicks you out.

To be clear, the default state of schools is for people to work unreasonably and unhealthily long hours. It takes moral courage and strong organisation to challenge this, but it can be done.