I’ve started Mental Garden exactly 2 years ago. Yet today it’s very different from what it once was.
In an uncomfortably small Airbnb in Tenerife I had the idea to create my own yearly reflection, which I then worked on frantically for weeks. I then published it on the Internet.
With great success: hundreds of people downloaded and used it.
From there, I went on to send out monthly reflections on various topics, such as personal relationships, your environment, or vulnerability. My idea was to make reflection a habit.
In the beginning, the focus was mostly on challenging my own values by exploring them through questions. I loved the reflection question at the end of James Clear's 3-2-1 Newsletter and wanted to have more of that.
But now, Mental Garden has become more of a writing project for me. It's less about the reflection questions and more about the essay at the start of each email. Sometimes the questions even feel unnecessary, and I just add them because that’s what I’ve been doing for two years. Last year's essays are representative of this:
I post twice a month, and sometimes I have to force myself. This is both a blessing and a curse: The rhythm makes me sit down, and then I write something I’m quite happy with. But other times it produces something I probably should not have published at all.
I’ve been thinking a lot about how to continue with Mental Garden. Should I just write one article per month and aim for a higher quality target? Keep the current format? Do something completely different?
Since I’m still trying to decide, I thought it might be helpful to ask you about it. Could you fill out this quick 2 minute form to help me understand how I can make Mental Garden work better for you?
With that, let’s start with the retro and planning ✨
✏️ Retro
(As always, you can download the Notion template to take structured notes)
What goals did you set for yourself last month, and how well did you achieve them?
Make a list of your goals (even if they were only implicit) and score them from 1 (low) to 10 (high). You are not allowed to pick a 7. Take notes as you go.
Is there something that is blocking you?
What held you back last month? What can you do to avoid this next month?
What did you learn?
Did you learn something about yourself, your environment, or about the work you do?
🔭 Planning
What are your top 3 priorities next month?
Why are they important to you?
What goals do you set for yourself in light of these priorities?
To beat procrastination, make sure to split every higher-level goal into small subgoals.
What are potential obstacles or challenges you may face?
How can you prepare for them?
🙏 Thanks!
Thank you for being part of Mental Garden. I sincerely hope you found this email useful.
Also the end of this year is approaching, which means it’s about time to start the yearly reflection. So if you haven’t already, check out this year’s template (available as Notion, Google Docs, and printable PDF) to get started:
On to the next two years of Mental Garden!
With gratitude,
Marc
PS: I’ve decided to discontinue Mental Garden Premium and will make all premium content in the archive public within the next few weeks. This means all past reflection questions will be public soon.