Monica Rysavy, Ph.D., Ed.D., is a multifaceted educator, researcher, and operations expert dedicated to helping people and organizations streamline chaos through thoughtful systems. With over 20 years of experience spanning education, institutional research, and business operations, Monica has developed a unique approach that combines academic rigor with practical application.
As the former Chief Operating Officer of Forte Labs, Monica integrated her expertise in systems design, instructional technology, and data management to transform business operations. She is also the creator of Systematic You, a company that empowers everyday individuals to reclaim their time and mental energy through simplified, effective workflows. Her work often explores the intersection of goal-setting frameworks, human behavior, and productivity, making her insights both actionable and inspiring.
Monica’s scholarly contributions include dual doctoral degrees: a Ph.D. in Learning, Design, and Technology from Penn State University and an Ed.D. in Educational Leadership from Wilmington University. Her doctoral dissertation on achievement goal orientation examined how managers’ personal goal orientations influence their support of employee goals, offering fresh perspectives on leadership and team dynamics.
Passionate about creating systems that foster accountability and joy, Monica is committed to helping people unlock their potential without losing sight of what matters most—time for creativity, connection, and personal fulfillment.
1) Your background spans academia, operations, and productivity coaching—fields often seen as technical and structured. Yet your approach feels surprisingly human, empathetic, and personal. What first sparked your passion for systems, and how do you balance their inherent structure with the unpredictability of real life?
You know, it’s funny. My love for systems runs in the family. My grandfather, John Tarburton, called Leon, was a potato, soybean, and corn farmer in Delaware. For as long as I can remember, he has always come up with really innovative systems to improve not only yields, but also make farming more efficient. As a child, I simply thought he liked to tinker. But I later learned from my mom and uncles that he was actually really innovative in farming (which I think is kind of cool).
As far as my mom, she was a librarian who was doing online learning before it was even a thing. In the mid-90s, she was one of the people who made the first online learning programs (designed for teaching information literacy skills in Delaware). So, I think it’s probably no surprise, for me at least, that I ended up heavily investing a lot of my education on how to teach effectively online. I find it interesting as I reflect back on my early upbringing that systems learning and building systems are in my DNA, so to speak.
That said, I think what really crystallized this passion is my personal journey with ADHD. I had to develop systems to manage my daily life and academic work. I grew up in the 80s when being diagnosed and labeled as ADHD covered a wide range of challenges for people going through school. My mom, as I mentioned earlier, was an educator and didn’t want me labeled. I didn’t go down that traditional path of having special education courses for ADHD or ADHD meds as a child because she didn’t want me labeled. Even though I knew I had ADHD—we had me diagnosed pretty early on—I had to learn how to make things work in ways that would make my brain work and channel my focus (to get things done).
So obviously with my eventual collecting of academic degrees (I think at last count, I’m up around six or so), I found things that have worked. And, while it’s not always perfect, the systems that I’ve put in place for myself (e.g., regularly time blocking, working on certain things at certain times of the day) have really been transformational for me. Before building systems, I found that it was sort of difficult to get started on things, no matter how excited I was about them.
In terms of ‘how do I balance the structure of systems with the unpredictability of real life,’ I think a big part of it is that I know that things will eventually happen that you don’t expect. I know that you need to have a flexible approach. So, for example, when I work with clients, I’m really sharing things that I’ve done that have worked for me, knowing that they’ve worked for me, even in times when things have been really hard (e.g., personal loss, unexpected change). Through experience, I know that the systems that I’m sharing are not hypotheticals; they’re ones that I’ve battle-tested myself, and I know that they work. The feedback I get from clients also lets me know that they work. One of the things I have been told repeatedly, which is really cool, is that no matter what type of system I’m putting into place, I make it fun.
I always start with the why. I think that comes from being a teacher at my core. One of the first grades I taught was first grade, and the question ‘Why?’ was very popular in that grade. For example, I might ask myself or a client, “Why are we implementing this system? What is the goal of this system?”
2) In your work, you assert that systems are tools to streamline chaos. While some see systems as mechanisms for constraint, I get the sense you view them as liberating. How do you help people shift their mindset to see systems as pathways to greater freedom and, dare I say, fun?
I really like this question because it gets us to something really fundamental about systems, in my opinion. I often find that people think about systems as these constraining boxes—things that limit creativity or spontaneity. But in my experience, both personally and in working with clients, it’s really actually the opposite. When you have good systems in place, that’s when you can truly be creative and spontaneous.
Think about it this way: If you’re always putting out fires or drowning in what I like to call operational chaos, you don’t have the mental space to innovate or actually enjoy your work. I see this all the time when educators, thought leaders, creators … they’re all really amazing at what they do, but they get super bogged down by the day-to-day mess, right? So, the reasons that inspired them to start their business in the first place begin to become something in their rearview, as cliche as that may sound. After a while, they find themselves focusing on admin work, or fixated on an operational mess they never anticipated.
I find that the shift in mindset happens when people start experiencing what I like to call the ‘holy shit, we’re doing it,’ moments. That’s when people realize that systems aren’t about restriction. They’re about freedom. Freedom from constantly reinventing the wheel every time they’re doing something. Freedom from feelings of doubt, like, “What am I missing? Why am I always dropping balls?” Freedom to have the ability to think about the things they actually want to think about, the things that they’re passionate about, as opposed to admin types of things. I find that once people figure that out and experience the liberation that systems can bring, systems actually become fun. So, instead of it being about systems being too rigid, they can become something that provides the freedom to do all of the things that you want to do in the first place. Once you are in this mindset, you get excited about finding new ways to optimize and improve.
3) Beyond key performance indicators (KPIs) that measure success and output, what other meaningful metrics can we use to evaluate a system’s efficiency? And how often should these be reviewed to ensure our systems evolve and remain effective?
Reviewing how experiments have gone, taking a look at the success of the decisions you’ve made, and evaluating how well they were effective, that’s all foundational of design-based research, which is the methodology I used in my doctoral dissertations. It is also something that I really enjoy. Yes, KPIs are important. However, some of the most telling metrics are often not the most obvious ones. A crucial indicator I always look for is something that I call the mental load metric. How much mental energy are people expanding just to keep the system running? If a system you’ve created is truly efficient, it should reduce cognitive burden, not add to it. For example, if your system’s causing cognitive overload, it’s not an effective system.
Another vital measure, I believe, is adaptability. I learned this firsthand as the COO at Forte Labs. In this fast-paced online education company (that, in many ways, operates as an on-campus startup), things change quickly. Oftentimes, people use the phrase, ‘move quickly and break things.’ I instead tend to prefer to move thoughtfully, be informed by data, and try not to break things (but be prepared if I do). That being said, I found that you really need to have systems, especially in fast-paced environments. Systems that are flexible enough to evolve without breaking, so you don’t have to start from scratch every time there’s some sort of major pivot. When evaluating systems, I like to look for stress points in areas where people have started creating workarounds because the system isn’t working. These aren’t failures necessarily; they’re just valuable feedback about where your system needs to adapt. If you’re finding people are using the same workarounds over and over again, then it’s time to change the system. Sometimes, it’s just a matter of including the workaround; other times, it is understanding where things aren’t working.
As far as review frequency, I believe in combining regularly scheduled reviews with quarterly big-picture assessments, and then real-time monitoring where it makes sense. Regarding real-time monitoring, I do love dashboards. For instance, a process where I always check in on Mondays with various aspects of the business, everything from financial, to customer service and customer success, to looking at new projects we’re working on and how close we are to achieving them, etc. Or, if we’re ready for a new launch, counting down to a launch date and looking at performance metrics related to the launch.
Regarding personal goals and systems, I check in with myself much more frequently. I have a combination of weekly and monthly reviews because I find quarterly reviews regarding personal goals are just too out in the future to be useful. I like to be able to move much faster and make changes and improvements if it’s needed.
When I work with clients, I set up early warning systems, which are checkpoints that can help people catch potential issues before they escalate. These feedback loops naturally surface issues before they become problems. I find that these are super effective. This way, you’re not constantly looking back or only identifying a problem once it’s a dumpster fire. You can see little problems starting to occur, and you can fix them before they become bigger problems.
4) As we begin a new year, many of us feel compelled to set ambitious goals. Yet traditional goal setting often feels transactional—hit the target or fail—and does little to sustain motivation. In your research, what elements make goal-setting frameworks more inviting, allowing for curiosity, exploration, and even enjoyment while maintaining accountability?
One of the key findings from my dissertation research on achievement goal orientation was that traditional goal setting often fails because it treats goals as destinations rather than learning journeys. Instead of the typical hit-or-miss approach to goal setting, I encourage what I call curiosity-driven goal setting. This means building in regular reflection points where you’re not just asking, “Did I hit that target?” But, also, “What did I learn?” And “How has my understanding evolved?” From my experience working with educators and business leaders, I found that the most successful goal-setting frameworks have three key elements:
- They’re flexible enough to accommodate unexpected opportunities.
- They include clear but adjustable milestones. (Like my answer to your earlier question: When life happens, how do you keep going?)
- And this is super important: They celebrate progress and not just outcomes.
I find it fascinating that people who adopt this more exploratory approach to goals often achieve more than they would with rigid targets. It’s about creating what I call productive tension: enough structure to move forward purposefully but enough flexibility to allow for discovery and adaptation. That’s the only way I find that goal setting can actually work with all of the things happening on our planet, not to mention our own professional and personal lives.
5) Some people find the idea of “systematizing their life” intimidating because they don’t know where to begin. What’s an entry-level, low-pressure system someone could experiment with today to get a feel for the benefits of putting a system in place?
An entry-level, low-pressure system someone can try is something I like to call a two-minute systems experiment. I’ve done something similar with every group that I’ve taught, whether it’s been high school students when I was teaching business education courses, college students, working with adults, etc. This works for any age, so you can even try it with your kids if you’d like. It’s incredibly simple. Pick one small daily task that usually creates friction in your day—for example, something like making your coffee, because you always want to make coffee in the morning, but every time you get ready to leave for work you find that you never have time to. Or something else, like packing your bag for work, having your gym bag ready, cleaning your email inbox, or whatever. So, set a two-minute timer and set up one aspect of that task. So, for the coffee example, maybe it’s arranging your coffee station. You make sure the coffee carafe is clean, and you have the coffee ready to go.
The key is to make some part more achievable. You are finding something tiny and achievable that you can fix around whatever task previously had enough friction that it was problematic. Then comes the fun part: For the next week, notice how that tiny system affects your day. Did it reduce decision fatigue? Did it save you some time? Maybe it created little moments of satisfaction throughout your day, like you finally got to enjoy coffee in the morning! It’s not necessarily about building a perfect system. It’s just about experiencing how a small bit of intentional organizing can make life easier.
That’s why I find that this really works with all age groups, because people can truly experience frustration at any age. It’s why I love starting people with this exercise: because it’s super low-pressure and eye-opening. It’s not like saying to someone, “I want you to fix your financial situation.” That’s a huge lift. In fact, it’s a huge important lift. However, it is likely not something that would be the place you would want to start. Especially if you are working with someone new to systems. I find that when people experience a small win, they naturally start looking for other areas of their lives where systems might make their lives easier.
