In his book On Writing, novelist Stephen King consistently encourages would-be writers to stop messing around and get on with writing. He advises partitioning off chunks of your day to sit down somewhere without distractions and stick religiously to a schedule.

Unlike King, I’m not a millionaire with a quiet bolthole in New England where I can work uninterrupted. I have been, until recently, a full-time teacher and middle leader, and am the father of three little kids who are noisy and nuts.

But I have managed to apply a similar approach to King’s to my own work; it has helped me enormously in managing the move from classroom teacher to middle leader, with its shift towards a more varied workload and a working pattern that fluctuates between fixed and fluid tasks. It’s a simple trick: I now produce a timetable for every part of my job.

This is how I do it.

At the start of term, you will be handed the usual timetable that shows you who you are teaching and when. It might contain other specified blocks of time (planning, preparation and assessment, for example, or allocated slots for leadership and management), but your teaching load will be fixed. And make no mistake - in your middle leadership role, your teaching will still always come first. What is important is how you handle the fluid elements of your job.

Before I took up my first middle-leadership role, I spent some time writing down everything that I would have to do on a daily, weekly, monthly, termly and annual basis. This was helpful for about a week, but I quickly realised that this job does not break down neatly into those categories in reality. More likely you will experience the following three types of task:

* Concrete: anything that is timetabled, such as teaching; regular meetings with your senior leadership team line manager; parents evenings; student report deadlines; exams; faculty reviews; or departmental meetings.

* Spontaneous: anything out of the blue, such as a student behaviour referral; staff illness or concerns over their wellbeing; participation in whole-school recruitment; the hosting of a guest or visitor; or the fielding of parental complaints.

* Delegated: anything you didn’t think was your job, but now suddenly is, such as planning an Inset; reporting to governors; devising a whole-school homework policy; or being asked to lead on literacy.

I recommend an extended period of thinking time in which you work together with another middle leader, especially if you’re new in post, to compile a list of tasks that you will be expected to complete in your role; designate each of these to one of the above categories.

Then draw up a timetable that has your teaching time laid out, leaving the empty slots. Fill these slots with the tasks you have drawn up. Some will be fixed, some flexible. For the latter, use a particular colour and input them last, as you can use these as fillers. Ensure they are spread out, though, as these are the ones you can move to accommodate spontaneous or delegated jobs.

Bear in mind that some tasks may need to move as a matter of course. Learning walks are a good example; if you do these at the same time each week, you will always be observing the same classes.

‘No’ is a useful word

To make sure that you don’t take on too many spontaneous tasks at the expense of your other responsibilities, mark a couple of periods as fixed slots that don’t change for anyone. Use another colour or give them a thick border to make them clear, and don’t be afraid to say no. Do this often enough that people get the message, but not so often that you get a reputation as a curmudgeon.

Include lunchtime on the timetable and make sure that you use this time to actually have lunch. You will benefit from eating your sandwich away from a keyboard, with some adult conversation.

As for marking and planning, don’t spend the first 30 minutes of the time you have allocated for this replying to emails. If it’s impossible to get through your marking in the time given, look for ways of designing a marking policy that fits with the time you have, rather than one that assumes you will be working into the night or over the weekend.

While writing may not be your business, the principle is still the same. Like Stephen King, you will need discipline to make this system work. Once you have your timetable drawn up, make sure you stick to it. It’s as simple as that. Doing so will not only help you to manage your new role - it will help you to keep some sense of work-life balance, too.

James Ashmore is a former secondary English teacher and middle leader, and is now an educational consultant. He co-wrote The New Middle Leader’s Handbook with Caroline Clay. He tweets @JA_Ashmore