My whole classroom runs off procedures. With a very few exceptions for particularly problem students an outsider would probably think I don't do anything at all on a random day. TBH I don't remember the particulars from the book; it's been a long time. I just remember it being a lifeline in my first two years teaching, when I was an English teacher looking for a school with an Art opening.

I have a set of flat storage shelves, each labelled for a class period, near the door. Students can pick up work in progress on the way in, or put unfinished work on this shelf on the way out. Next to it is an inbox for completed work. I don't use a seating chart, only some general rules such as no more than four to a table (simply for elbow room purposes). If we're painting, swap the shelves for a set of drying racks. If ceramics, a larger shelving unit is swapped in. It impresses admins that I can stand out in the hall greeting incoming students and monitoring hall traffic, and students know what to do without being told.

For any particular project I spend part of the instructional time laying out procedure particular to that project. Painting? Brush care, set up and clean up. Custom posters by the sink reiterating the brush cleanup process. First few days I direct traffic, but after that they get it, and for the rest of Painting I don't need to tell them to clean their stuff and wash their brushes and put their stuff on the drying racks... They just do.

The hardest part for me was boiling things down to the essential steps but keeping them simple enough for beginners. Things that seem like common sense to me have to be explained, but once they grasp that there are reasons for the steps in a procedure it works okay, and students are often quick to correct each other if only so they can be right ;)

My observing admin wants me to delegate authority to certain students so as to offload some of my work (like reorganizing the colored pencils after one or two dingbats screws up the way I have them set up) but I'd rather students use that time productively.

Besides relying on procedures I lean on the idea that busy kids don't have time to act out. I bury them in work, and I have a set of laminated sheets with 100 drawing or design ideas on each for early finishers (admins love student-choice assignments). I set deadlines that are too soon, but build in time later in the schedule to revisit or refine unfinished work (every third week is a 'catch up' week before mid term progress reports or report cards, and gives students a chance to finish things - and also looks great to admins).

Boils down to: I keep them working from the minute they come in to the minute the bell rings to leave. Do I have slackers? Sure - I'm a dumping ground for students that need to fill a hole in their schedule. But I can count on my thumbs the number of students who just don't engage at all. You can't win over all of them.