Rich Czyz—Autopilot: Practical Productivity for School Leaders

[00:01] Announcer:

Welcome to Principal Center Radio, helping you build capacity for instructional leadership. Here's your host, Director of the Principal Center, Dr. Justin Baeder. Welcome, everyone, to Principal Center Radio.

[00:13] Justin Baeder:

I'm your host, Justin Baeder, and I'm honored to welcome back to the program Rich Chiz. Rich is an elementary school principal and co-founder of 4oClockFaculty.com. He's the author of four books, including The 4 O'Clock Faculty, The Secret Sauce, The Rogue Leader, and his new book, Autopilot, Practical Productivity for School Leaders, which we're here to talk about today. Rich is dedicated to creating productive environments and engaging all stakeholders in meaningful and relevant learning opportunities.

[00:42] Announcer:

And now, our feature presentation.

[00:44] Justin Baeder:

Rich, welcome back to Principal Center Radio. Thanks, Justin. Glad to be here. Well, I'm excited to get into your new book because you are tackling a topic that is near and dear to my heart and is one of the first topics I looked into as an author and the subject of my dissertation was around productivity. And I know you have some great stuff for us. So take us into what you saw happening in the profession, what you saw happening in your work and in the work of your colleagues.

[01:11]

that prompted you to write Autopilot?

[01:13] Rich Czyz:

Yeah, so I'm an elementary school principal, and I think it has gotten definitely harder over the years. I've been a principal now for 10 years. Prior to that, I served in a role on the curriculum end, central office supervisor and director. And I think the job just keeps getting harder and more difficult every day. There's more thrown onto our plates and I'm seeing a lot of other school leaders who are burning out, who may be leaving the profession or kind of just giving up a little bit. So this book was really about trying to help everyone.

[01:49]

I feel like I'm pretty good at productivity myself. I'm pretty good at mastering productivity. and organizing and delegating, trying to do all those things. So the tagline I've been using for the book is to find a way to run the school before the school runs you. That's really what I'm trying to do here is help other school leaders with systems, right? I think that's the biggest lack is people struggle with their own systems.

[02:12]

Trying to get away from that constant firefighting, you know, whether it's in a building or in a central office position and trying to build those systems to help you be more productive.

[02:22] Justin Baeder:

And you use the term autopilot, which probably rubs some people the wrong way, because I've come across a lot of people who feel like if they are not personally it, if they're not personally handling everything, if they're not personally sacrificing and on the front lines and, you know, just like it's always me, then they feel like they're not doing their jobs. Take us into some of your paradigm for what it means to be on autopilot or to have autopilot systems in place.

[02:47] Rich Czyz:

Yeah, so I think Autopilot is all about finding those systems that work for you. I think a big part of that is delegating. It is, you know, giving up some of the work to allow others to develop their leadership skills. In the book, I talk about the difference between multitasking, right? Trying to do everything yourself and trying to do a million things yourself versus multi-asking, right? Trying to find those others who are willing to help, who are willing to develop their own leadership.

[03:13]

And I think that can be anyone, right? It could be colleagues. It can be staff members within the building. It can be students within the building. I think you can delegate and really have others take on ownership for whatever your setting is, whether it's a school or district, really getting people to buy into that whole idea of You know, making sure that everything is working for everyone. Right.

[03:37]

And not just for you. So I think that delegation is a big part of autopilot. I think it's also about automating whatever we can. Right. I think a lot of times we stick with things that we've been doing for many years, even though they're not working for us anymore. So.

[03:53]

I think that automation piece is a big part of the autopilot mindset. So one of the biggest pieces in terms of automation, a lot of times we think about technology, right? You think about an automated phone system where somebody's calling in and, you know, there's a robot on the other end of the phone answering the phone and usually getting people frustrated. Automation doesn't have to be that way. The example that I give in my building, we're a pre-K through five building and we have morning announcers. So, you know, I've been in other buildings where it might be the principal or the counselor who's doing the morning announcements.

[04:26]

So in our building, I spent about two weeks at the beginning of the year training our fifth graders to do the morning announcements. We have a team of about six students who get selected every year. And we trained for about two weeks. I showed them the entire system for how to do it. I give them a template for each day. And at the end of that two weeks, I know that any of the six students could do any of the roles that fall within the morning announcements and It's kind of taken care of all year long.

[04:56]

And I know that doesn't seem like, you know, the greatest innovative technology in terms of automation, but it is delegating that role to somebody else. And it's just as the word suggests, it's automatic, right? Those students show up every morning to do the morning announcements, you know, whether I'm there or not. And, you know, it really helps as far as getting something done that might be something else thrown on my plate or somebody else in the building's plate.

[05:21] Justin Baeder:

I love that. And I'm reminded of the first days of school by Harry Wong, where he tells the story of how he didn't show up one day and, you know, he was out sick and he had a sub, but his sub didn't show up. And everything just kind of ran smoothly because his students were in such strong routine. They knew exactly what to do. They knew how to run the class and it worked out fine. I don't remember whether that was him personally or one of his readers who had that happen to him.

[05:45]

But I love that sustainability and that resilience that's there because we're all going to be out of commission at some point, right? We're going to be at a meeting. We're going to be out sick. There's going to be some reason that we can't be there to personally do everything. So having other people who are empowered to get the key things done, I think is so crucial. And I can remember identifying specific systems that were in place when I became a principal that my predecessor or somebody even earlier had set up.

[06:14]

I can remember realizing how much easier those systems made my job, that there's just a person who's in charge of this, someone who knows what to do. It's not me. I am not personally responsible for running everything. so that when something comes up, when there's a disturbance, when there's an interruption, when there's an emergency, I can be free to handle that and I'm not busy spinning six other plates that I have to spin every day. What do you say to leaders who feel guilty about that, who feel like they're not doing their jobs if they delegate any of their work to other people? Because I think that's one of the biggest internal barriers is that people feel like, well, I'm going to look lazy if I try to hand this off to someone else.

[06:53] Rich Czyz:

Yeah, I think that's a difficult thing as a school leader. I know just in terms of the head secretary in my building, Barb Carmignani, she's amazing. She was in the building for about 15 years prior to me getting there. And I felt like when I first started in the building, I was asking her, you know, 10,000 questions in the first week, right? How does this work? How does that work?

[07:14]

And across the board, she is amazing at what she does. I always tell everyone she runs the school. I'm only the principal, right? Like I just show up here every day. But, you know, I believe it's about that trust piece, right? When you can trust others to do the job that you could do, right?

[07:31]

As a school leader, you could do it. It's about trusting those others to take ownership over it, right? And I think it is, as far as that guilt, I think it is trusting others to take that ownership piece, right? You want a school, you want a district that others can be proud of, right? And I think when...

[07:49]

you are helping others to develop that leadership skill, right? I always say that a leader is only as good as the other leaders that they helped to develop, right? When I think about the number of, you know, teachers in my building who have left and gone on to bigger and better things, it's always a big blow to the school, right? When someone good leaves, but it's also something that I'm very proud of, right? Is when people are leaving to take on other leadership roles or things that are helping them to be better. So You know, I think part of that guilt can be minimized by, you know, how others feel about the job that you're doing.

[08:24]

I think they recognize that you're not necessarily just slacking, right? You're not just slacking off and trying to do less work. You're really trying to take on the most important work. that's in the school, right? And I think that's the biggest piece of this is, you know, we're not just clearing the plate to clear the plate and get rid of things that are on your plate, but it's really about taking on the meaningful work within the school and saving your time for that most meaningful work.

[08:51] Justin Baeder:

Yeah, because there's always higher level work that we could be doing anytime we're doing something that we could delegate to someone else, right? There's always a higher use of our time, potentially.

[09:01] Rich Czyz:

I was leaving for a meeting off-site out of my building within the district. And as I was leaving, I walked through the playground and students were outside at recess. And I had one student who stopped me and he said, yeah, Mr. Chiz, who's going to be in charge when you're gone? And my answer was everyone, right? Everyone's going to be in charge while I'm gone.

[09:19]

And I think that's the mindset here is right. You want others to take that ownership, whether it's students, staff, teachers, custodians, secretaries, whoever it may be, taking that ownership for the building and really making it as productive as possible for everyone.

[09:33] Justin Baeder:

Very well said. Thinking about our personal work, so the work that we are going to do ourselves that does stay on our plates because it's not delegated to other people, what are some of the main productivity pitfalls that you see principals struggling with?

[09:49] Rich Czyz:

Yeah, so I think the biggest thing is, and I'll speak from personal experience here, it's focus, right? It's trying to focus on the things that you need to focus on. And a lot of times your mind's in a million different places, right? And one of the examples I give in the book is, you know, I have something called a phone jail in my office. So it's a little cage. It holds five or six little spots for cell phones in there.

[10:12]

It actually does have a little lock and key. It was bought for me by my dad as a joke for our family, but I've actually found it to be very useful because you can put the phone in there and it is that mindset of when I know the phone's in there, it's locked up and I'm not focused on that. I'm able to focus on what it is that I'm trying to do. So whether that's going to visit classrooms, whether that's writing a parent communication, Once that phone is in there, I know I can focus on what I'm doing in that moment. I think that's the biggest piece of being an administrator. A lot of times things are thrown at you.

[10:49]

You have to remember what your priority is. So I have several different strategies within the book for determining what those daily goals are that you want to get done before everything else. Building in time blocks to kind of catch up with the emergencies when they do fill in your schedule, right? A lot of times, if you don't leave blocks of time, you know, you're just going from one fire to the next all day long.

[11:16] Justin Baeder:

I thought you were going to say it the opposite way. So you're saying time blocks to catch up on emergency or time blocks to set aside emergencies after they're handled and work on other stuff?

[11:25] Rich Czyz:

Yeah. So you can actually do both. I think a lot of times I'm very specific about what my schedule looks like, right? So blocking off time for email, right? Several times a day. So I think that's one of the big, one of the big things that kind of limits school leaders is the inbox, right?

[11:42]

That inbox is going to fill up all day long. And as soon as you empty it, it's going to fill up again, right? It's kind of one of those never ending things that, um, you know, keeps us from doing our best work. And a lot of times it is now taking somebody else's priority and making it our priority. So one of the strategies I talk about in the book is getting a bigger boat. So I'm a huge fan of the movie Jaws, which is one of the most popular lines from that movie is, you know, we're going to need a bigger boat.

[12:10]

So boat in this case is a blocked off answering time. So That's for email. And I think a lot of times school leaders who are spending their entire day in the inbox are struggling to get things done. So, you know, I have a very short boat in the morning, about a half hour when I first get to school, go through any emails that have come overnight, reply to any that need immediate reply, delegate any that need to be delegated and file the rest. Midday, I have another blocked off answering time in there. Anything that's coming in the morning, addressing that.

[12:45]

And then I have one more at the end of the day before I go. So not trying to live within the inbox and answering emails as soon as they come back, but setting that expectation that I will answer in a timely manner, just not immediately. And I think that's one of the things that helps me to be successful is, you know, blocking off that time specifically for email or other things within the schedule.

[13:09] Justin Baeder:

I think I've seen that maybe called 3-2-1-0, like three times a day, 21 minutes, get it down to zero emails. And I think that's so powerful because even if you can't actually do all of the work that's represented by those emails, you at least know what's come in. You can get back to people and say, okay, I'll look into this or set some sort of expectation. And then you're not flying blind. And I think that to me is the biggest thing. crushing feeling of having an overwhelming inbox is knowing like there's a bunch of stuff there.

[13:37]

I don't know what it is. I just know there's a lot of it and it's weighing on me all day while I try to get other stuff done. And yet I'm not really getting into that. So I think that is a fantastic strategy. And I love the acronym blocked off answering time, right? That's correct.

[13:50]

Yeah. I wonder how you feel, Rich, about those times of day where we feel like we're not very productive. Like I noticed there was a time after lunch where if I sat down at my computer, inevitably I would just start scrolling up and down in my inbox and I'd look for something to answer. And I would just think, OK, this is not the right time for me to be sitting at my desk looking for an email to answer. And often that would be when I would go get into classrooms. But how do you think about that?

[14:14]

productive time and energy and kind of like where we choose to spend our time. Cause I definitely felt like not all blocks of time during the day were equal for me just based on, you know, lunch and blood sugar and just all the different, you know, ups and downs of the school day. Any thoughts on that?

[14:29] Rich Czyz:

Yeah, I would definitely agree with that. I think a lot of times the afternoon is that time where it kind of You know, you dial back the energy a little bit. I think it's important to do certain work during certain times of the day. So for example, you know, I'm coming in the morning, I'm figuring out the sub situation. I'm doing one of my email boats first thing in the morning, going out for student arrival, making sure that I'm out there to greet students every morning and parents coming in Disney classrooms. And then once that's done tackling whatever it is, that's my major goal for the day.

[15:00]

So whether it's a letter that I'm writing to the community or working on a budget or some specific project. I have the most energy first thing in the morning after I go and greet those kids and That's when I have the most energy. Saving some of the, what I'll call administrative, right? It's just those administrative tasks that are kind of, you know, you can do with your eyes closed, right? But you still have to do them when you're down on energy in the afternoon or wherever it may be. So.

[15:28]

I definitely think that there are specific times to do specific tasks. And I think, you know, like you, I think when I realize I'm sitting on my desk and it's not really going the way I think it's supposed to go, or I don't have the energy level to do what I need to do. Like you, I'm up in classrooms, right? Because I think that's where the energy comes from, right? Going and seeing what kids are doing within the classroom, what teachers are doing within the classroom kind of gives you that energy boost that you may need at some point in the day.

[15:57] Justin Baeder:

Yeah, I think there really is something to that specific time of day when we do our best work. And I see a lot of principals trying to get into classrooms first thing in the morning. And like my take on that is that often it is better if nothing is interrupting you to just like shut the door and get some work done. If this is your best time, like if you need to write a parent letter, And 9 a.m., nobody is knocking on your door.

[16:20]

Shut it and write the letter and get into classrooms later because often we see more that's useful when things are, you know, maybe a little more chaotic in the afternoon. It's just a better opportunity to be in classrooms. And that's that time of day when, yeah, I'm fidgety. I'm ready to get up from the office and get out. And definitely knew that morning time was my best, you know, sit at the computer and knock workout time, even though I might feel guilty about that, even though I might want to be in classrooms during that time. That is my peak time.

[16:47]

writing and productivity time as well.

[16:50] Rich Czyz:

I actually talk about something called cave time in the book, but it's the idea of closing yourself off within the cave. And what I'll actually do is turn the light off within my office, close the door, because if that light is off, a lot of times people will try to peek in. And if they recognize that you're in there, you know, they're going to come in no matter what, even if the door is closed. But by turning the light off, you can, you know, almost pretend that you're not in there, get done what you need to get done. And hopefully people will not interrupt you. You know, I kind of joke with our secretaries all the time.

[17:22]

I'll close the door, turn the light off. They know I'm in there and someone will come and ask and I can hear like, oh, is he in there? And not wanting to lie, they'll say, I'm not sure. You can't feel guilty about that, right? There are some things that you need to do and need to get done. And sometimes closing the door is the best way to do that.

[17:39] Justin Baeder:

Because if you are available all the time, that time will get taken inevitably, right? Like people will soak up all of that time if you let them.

[17:47] Rich Czyz:

Yeah, absolutely. I think, you know, again, that's another pitfall, right? You know, almost every interview I've been in where I've been asked to interview for another school leadership position, I'll often hear people talk about, you know, what's your style or what's your type of leadership personality. And they'll always say, you know, I have an open door policy, right? My door is always open. People can come in whenever they want to.

[18:10]

And That's great, right? Like it's great to talk to people and to give them the platform to be available to speak to. But a lot of times it's taking their priority and it's making it your priority. And unfortunately, sometimes we have our own priorities that aren't getting done because you know, we're jumping through hoops for others. So I think sometimes closing that door, as I said, either, you know, literally or like, you know, metaphorically is sometimes you gotta do it in order to get stuff done that you want to get done.

[18:40] Justin Baeder:

So let's talk lastly, if we could, about routines and rituals, because, you know, there tend to be certain things that are fixed in our day. You know, there's drop off, there's dismissal or, you know, maybe recess or lunch duty. What are some of the intentional routines and rituals that you build into your day that you talk about in the book?

[18:56] Rich Czyz:

Yeah, so I think my biggest is my end of day routine. It really allows me to shut my brain off for the day to really separate my role as principal from my role as, you know, dad, husband, person outside of the school day. So every day at the end of the day, I have a notebook where I record all of my most important work and tasks and checklists and all of those things. But I do a end of day shutdown. I write about this in the book. It's called reflect review to do.

[19:26]

And what I do is go through what worked or didn't work during the day. I will review anything that I feel like was not completed for the day. Normally I will add that to my notebook with a little checkbox next to it. I know that once I add that checkbox, it will be done for the next day. It's usually starting with my most important tasks. and then setting up my to do for the next day.

[19:50]

So making sure that I know exactly what needs to be done. Once I had all of that written down, I physically closed the notebook and put it into a drawer for the next day. And that is me putting it away, right? That is me letting go of it, knowing that it's there for tomorrow. I also talk in the book about, you know, believing in the idea of tomorrow, right? Tomorrow's always there to do more work.

[20:17]

But for now I'm going to, you know, shut it down, close it out, head home. And usually between that and my 30 minute drive home, I'm able to kind of shut those things off and know that, you know, tomorrow's another day and get to that work tomorrow. So I think that's probably one of my biggest routines that helps me to maintain a level of calmness and mindfulness within the job.

[20:40] Justin Baeder:

Yeah. I think that's so critical, especially if you're coming home to, you know, your spouse, family, you know, just being able to leave that stuff behind. And I also, not to get too personal here, but I also had to like change my clothes, wash my face, brush my teeth, almost like I was going to bed. But just to get home and really feel like I could move on with my day, just that felt like a necessary step for me. Yeah, absolutely. Those rituals are so critical.

[21:06]

And if I picked up on a detail there, I want to make sure I have correct. You're writing all this down pen and paper, right? Hard copy? That's correct. Yes. Why is that?

[21:14] Rich Czyz:

Have you heard of, you know, we have like technology for that now, don't we? Yeah. So I find that for me, writing it down actually helps me to kind of think through and process information. So, you know, I have an entire section in the book on what I call the notebook, right? So Literally at the start of the school year, I start a brand new notebook. I use a very specific one.

[21:34]

It has graph paper in it, so it's easy to kind of draw check boxes and things like that. But all of my notes, all of my checklists, all of my, any discipline that I'm dealing with as a school leader, any meetings that I've been sitting in, all of my notes for all of those things go into one notebook. I start at the end of August. I keep one notebook for the entire year. At the end of the year, I'll start a new one for the next year. But I literally know that everything that I need to know is in that notebook.

[22:03]

And for me, as I said, it helps me to kind of process the information. You know, could I keep it on a computer? Sure. But I think the notebook keeps everything in one place for me. I know that if I have to, you know, what was said at that meeting three weeks ago, I know it's in my notebooks. I can always flip back and find out exactly what was said.

[22:21]

It helps to kind of keep me in order. And I think one of the biggest pieces of the autopilot mindset that I do talk about in the book is figuring out what works for you, right? Some people do really well with technology. I use both, right? I do use technology. I'm not a complete like technophobe that I'm using the notebook but it does help me to kind of process and it's the same thing with our inbox or any of those other systems that we put in place.

[22:45]

You have to find exactly what works for you in order to make you successful and productive.

[22:51] Justin Baeder:

So the book is Autopilot, Practical Productivity for School Leaders. Rich Chiz, if people want to get in touch with you or learn about your work and your other books, where's the best place for them to go online?

[23:02] Rich Czyz:

Yeah, so the website is four o'clock faculty dot com. So that's probably the easiest way to get to me. Also on X and LinkedIn as well.

[23:11] Justin Baeder:

Well, as always, Rich, it's been a pleasure. Thanks so much for joining me again on Principal Center Radio.

[23:15] Rich Czyz:

All right. Thanks, Justin. I appreciate it.

[23:17] Announcer:

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