Better late than never: The Retro and Planning for February

Things took a bit longer...

This month's Retro and Planning is a few days late. I've been busy working on an essay that I really wanted to send out with this email. But it's taking longer than I thought. You'll get it in the next mail in about a week!

In this essay I'm working on, I'm wondering whether excitement is a good guide for making decisions. I'm currently struggling with a particular decision where I feel a lot of excitement in both directions. And experiencing that was so interesting that I had to explore it further!

So – thank you for your patience and have a great start to February!

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?

🌈 Bonus

What are you excited about this month?

Think about the different areas of your life, for example something related to friends, family, events, goals, ... Or surprises? ✨

🙏 Thanks!

Thank you for being part of Mental Garden. I sincerely hope you found this email useful.

See you again in a week 🤗

With gratitude,
Marc