A year-by-year report of our most popular editions

2020 — Ground 0, the awakening

Our first ever edition was published in October 2020, via our Substack platform. We talked about personal blind spots and how uncovering them was the first step to sustainable personal growth.

Based on magician Kyle Eschen’s Ted Talk, the 5 steps to minimizing and removing your personal blind spots include:

1. Ask for feedback
2. Surround yourself with diverse thinkers
3. Examine your past patterns
4. Identify your triggers
5. Pick a trusted friend to keep you in check

Not only inwards, blind spots happen outwards towards others as well. In this edition, we also featured PwC’s assumptions challenge to assess your blind spots.

Check out the full version of our first ever edition here.

2021 — Pandemic best practices

2021 was a unique year wherein we were forced to get used to the pandemic ways of working and living.

As we settled down through the massive changes, we saw a spurge of interest in our pandemic-related editions, with the most popular one uncovering jobseeking know-hows.

We shared a set of “pandemic” interview questions which looked like these:

Question #1: “How have you adapted to work life during the pandemic?”

• How to answer: Talk about how you’ve supported your coworkers during remote work, the strategies you’ve implemented to stay organized, and the updates you’ve made with your home setting (internet connection, sound equipment, etc).

Question #2: “How did you cope with the challenges that came with the pandemic?”

• How to answer: Be honest and vulnerable about your journey to help you earn the trust of the interviewer. However, avoid talking ill of your previous employer.

Question #3: “What is your preferred working style?”

• How to answer: Be it remote work, hybrid setup, or working from the office, it is important to be transparent and upfront about your preferences and set clear expectations.

Question #4: “How have you worked on yourself?”

• How to answer: This is the right opportunity for you to talk about any new skills you might have picked up or how you have evolved as an employee.

As our readers navigated the pandemic and post-pandemic life, we hoped to share guidance and insights that could support their growth. See the full edition here.

2022 — All-the-more personal

In 2022, we tapped a lot into psychological phenomenons such as urban loneliness, the Upper Limit problem, and our most viewed edition for the year—HSP Traits.

Highly-Sensitive Person (HSP) is a term coined by psychologist Elaine Aron in 1996, to describe someone with a higher level of sensitivity to physical, emotional, and social stimuli.

We dived into the common problems they might be facing at work, as well as their hidden superpowers, like:

1. Diplomatic when it matters the most. HSPs tend to think more deliberately before speaking. At work, they’re able to balance different people’s perspectives.
2. Unmatched self-awareness. HSPs often have a vibrant inner life and more accurate self-perceptions. This is helpful when tailoring leadership styles.
3. Skill to spot innovations. HSPs constantly scan for ways to make improvements in the workplace and highlight gaps before they become problems.
4. Integrate large informations. HSPs’ depth of processing and curiosity are the perfect combination for roles that require collaboration and strategy.
5. Focus on the big picture. HSPs avoid dabbling in the mundane and tend to drive towards a larger purpose to keep themselves focused and grounded.

Read the full edition, which includes a free Highly-Sensitive assessment to see where you are in the spectrum here.

2023 — Empowering all growth

By 2023, we saw that Monday Mavens was not just enjoyed by those who have left their mark in the Industry, rather it was also a go-to for future tech workers freshly finishing their education.

Our mid-year edition from June 2023 garnered the most attention last year, in which we shared all about:

Integrating yourself into the work environment

• Pause for a moment and reflect on your body's posture when doubt and fear take hold. Notice how you tend to shrink, withdraw, and adopt a self-protective stance.
• Draw inspiration from indomitable figures—fiction or not, and embrace their empowering poses. Channel their unwavering confidence and transform your own.
• Visualize yourself embodying fearless postures and intentionally adopt their confidence-exuding poses to radiate an aura of strength and determination.

Navigating new-job anxiety

• Embrace the unknown. Let go of the need for certainty and move forward with confidence. Seeking constant reassurance only fuels obsessive thoughts.
• Connect with your supervisor from day one. Clarify expectations, express your learning goals, and don't hesitate to ask questions or admit mistakes.
• Find solace in nature. Research from Stanford shows that spending time in nature serves as a remedy for imposter syndrome.
• Remember, you're never trapped. Your new job doesn't bind you to eternal servitude. You always have options, even if they're not immediately apparent.
• Filter out common mental traps. Activate your mental "spam" filter to avoid negative predictions, underestimating your abilities, or catastrophizing.

In the edition catered to ease fresh graduates into their new roles, we also emphasized the importance of redefining success on your own terms. Find the full feature here.

Curious to see the top editions from 2024?

Check out our 2024 Wrapped edition here.

‘Till next time!