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In today’s episode, I’m sharing five simple organizational hacks for principals. That’s coming up next right here on The Principal’s Handbook. Stay tuned!

Welcome to The Principal’s Handbook, your go-to resource for principals looking to revamp their leadership approach and prioritize self-care. I’m Barb Flowers, a certified life coach with eight years of experience as an elementary principal. Each week, we dive into strategies for boosting mental resilience, managing time effectively, and nurturing overall wellness.

From tackling daily challenges to maintaining a healthy work-life balance, I’m Barb Flowers, and together we’ll navigate the complexities of school leadership. Join me in fostering your sense of purpose as a principal and reigniting your passion for the job. This podcast puts your wellbeing first.

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Today, I want to share five hacks I used as an elementary principal. I’ve done previous episodes on big-picture organizational systems for your building, which are great for setting your school up for success. Now, I want to share some practical organizational tips to keep yourself organized—some build on what we’ve talked about before, and some are new.

I love talking about organizational hacks because being organized is key to success. The more systems you have in place, the easier it is to run things smoothly—and the less effort it takes to feel organized and in control.

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Hack #1: Use your digital calendar.
Some principals swear by digital calendars, others prefer paper, and some are somewhere in between—like me. I love my digital calendar as my master planning system, but I also keep a paper planner for jotting things down.

I schedule everything on my digital calendar—from classroom observations and parent meetings to work blocks and walk-throughs. If I want to get something done, it goes on the calendar. I even use it like a to-do list.

For example, if I talk to a parent and say I’ll follow up in a month, I put a reminder on my calendar to call them. If it’s not on my calendar, it probably won’t get done.

I don’t keep email on my phone, but I do have my school calendar synced on my phone and watch, so I get notifications everywhere.

I always tell teachers: if you mention something to me in passing but don’t email me, it might not get scheduled. If it’s not on my calendar, I can’t guarantee I’ll be there. So encourage people to email or come to your office to get it on the calendar.

I also share my calendar with my secretaries so they can see my availability and schedule things for me. We set up our entire school calendar at the start of the year—staff meetings, department meetings, leadership team meetings—everything was scheduled and shared with staff.

I’d copy events from the building calendar into my personal calendar so I never missed anything important.

Scheduling check-ins with parents, new teachers, or rotating staff meetings is also vital. When it’s on your calendar, it gets done.

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Hack #2: Have daily routines.
Daily routines helped me stay organized and consistent. For example, my morning routine started with an 8 a.m. meeting or planning time. Then, I’d be out greeting students and staff at arrival—sometimes in the hallways, sometimes at the car rider line, sometimes in the breakfast room, depending on what the building needed.

Greeting students and staff at arrival set a positive tone for the day.

After morning announcements, I’d check email, review my calendar, and plan the day.

Around 9:30 a.m., I did classroom visits. Doing visits early helped me get them done before afternoon behaviors or meetings interfered.

I didn’t spend long in each classroom—just enough to see students in action and chat briefly with teachers and kids.

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I also had weekly communication routines: every Friday I sent staff “Weekly Notes” with important updates and meetings. The secretary helped me put together a S’more newsletter for parents, with my “Parent Note” included.

Here’s a tip I learned: send newsletters on Fridays at 3 p.m.—that’s when parents are usually sitting in the car pickup line and more likely to open and read the message.

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Hack #3: Recognition systems.
We had recognition systems for staff and students. Staff got “purple tickets” for positive behaviors, which were entered into drawings at monthly meetings.

For students, we held quarterly awards assemblies with parents invited to celebrate achievements.

I also did “Principal’s Good News Calls,” where teachers could nominate students for positive phone calls home. To keep this consistent, secretaries would prep slips for teachers to nominate two students each quarter.

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Hack #4: End-of-day routines.
I ended most days on bus duty, ensuring student safety during dismissal.

We also had afternoon announcements and PBIS rewards on Fridays.

I made it a priority to wrap up my day by 4:15 p.m., using systems to keep everything organized so I could leave work on time and maintain work-life balance.

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Hack #5: Use a building hub for organization.
In my last couple of years as principal, I used a Google-based building hub—a shared spreadsheet organized by headers with links under each category.

For teachers, headers might be PBIS, Teacher Observation, or Staff Handbook, with links to resources right there.

We ditched paper binders for this digital system, which teachers loved because everything was easy to find.

I also had a “Principal Hub” with rubrics, budgeting documents, and evaluation info organized in one place.

If you want, I’ll share a general template for a principal hub in the show notes, so you can customize your own.

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Hack #6: Committee leadership structure.
(Okay, a bonus hack!)

When I arrived at my school, there were lots of committees, but meetings could get canceled if I wasn’t available, delaying progress.

I created a structure with a teacher committee chair for each group so meetings could continue if I wasn’t there. My assistant principal also supported committees.

This empowered teachers to lead and helped meetings run smoothly.

Having clear committee expectations—like minimum meetings per month, action plans, agendas, documentation, and delegated tasks—kept committees focused and productive.

Administrators stayed involved, but shared leadership lightened the load.

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Hack #7: Documentation system.
(Another bonus!)

For discipline, my assistant and I used a Google Form to log incidents: date, time, type, location—data we reviewed as a PBIS team.

Parents sometimes requested records, so this was helpful.

For sensitive notes—discipline or parent/staff communication—I kept a private paper notebook. It was quick, accessible, and protected from public records requests.

I tracked incident details, conversations, follow-ups, and resolutions.

Every principal’s system is different; some prefer digital, some paper. Find what works for you.

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I hope these organizational hacks help you! Try them out and see what fits your style.

I’ll include a link to the building and principal hub templates in the show notes.

If you love the show, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts—it really helps others find the show.

Remember, you have the power to shape your life by choosing the right mindset.

Have a great week, and I’ll see you back here next time!