Strategy for Dividing MBA Schools by Round

If you plan on applying in the 2014/2015 season, you've already missed R1 for many of those schools.

I considered splitting schools up over rounds but eventually went all in for R1. I looked at the deadlines for the schools I was applying to and they were well spaced out over September:
HBS: 8 Sept
Kellogg & MIT: 23 & 24 Sept
Stanford & Haas: 1 Oct

The timing allowed me to keep revising and reworking my essays as the month progressed, but the things that were common to all applications were already done by the first deadline so there was no need to worry about those.

Many of the things you need to do for one application, you'll need to do for the others incl. GMAT, transcripts, resume, recommenders. I batched similar tasks together, e.g., if I uploaded my GMAT score and report, then I did it across all my applications together. I just felt that was more efficient. The only real difference is in the essays, but even those generally have similarities. For the 11 essays I needed to write, I wrote about 6-7 distinct essays. The other essay prompts were similar enough for me to use one of those essays and customize to meet word count or customize to the school's identity, etc.

I also wasn't sure that I'd be able to go through the ups and downs of waiting for interviews and notifications, potentially getting dinged and still staying motivated to keep applying in the next round.

If you plan well enough in advance, you should be able to get through all the school's applications together.

I know this isn't a split over 2 rounds but hopefully this perspective helps you.