The letter: a template you can copy
Pick a date first - one year, five years, ten years. Then fill in the brackets. Specific beats impressive: “I take the 7:40 bus and hate it” will mean more to you in five years than “I am on a journey”.
The last section matters most. A letter that ends with a specific action, with a day attached, is a letter you can check against later.
The reply: write back as your future self
Now switch seats. Imagine you are the person opening the letter, and answer it. This is the step most templates leave out, and it is the one the research points to (see below).
Write the reply as the person you realistically hope to be - not a fantasy version. A future self who tells you “it all worked out” gives you nothing to do. One who says “I am glad you kept the Tuesday habit” does.
30 prompts if you are stuck
- What does an ordinary Tuesday look like for you right now?
- Who are the five people you talk to most?
- What are you spending money on that you hope you will not be?
- What skill are you trying to learn?
- What is the thing you keep saying you will do “one day”?
- What would you like your future self to have forgiven you for?
- What do you believe now that you suspect you will not believe later?
- What are you afraid will not work out?
- What would make you proud to read this letter?
- Where do you hope you are living?
- What do you hope you stopped doing?
- What song, show or book are you into right now?
- What is one thing about your health you want to be different?
- What does “enough money” mean to you today?
- Who do you want to still be close to?
- What decision are you in the middle of making?
- What advice would you give yourself if you were already there?
- What would you like to have tried, even if it failed?
- What is a small win from this week?
- What are you grateful for that you might take for granted later?
- What do you want your future self to remember about this year?
- What would you be disappointed to still be doing?
- What do you hope you have learned about yourself?
- What is a question only your future self can answer?
- What would you like your future self to say to you right now?
- What does a good day look like to you?
- What promise are you willing to make today?
- What are you doing that your future self will thank you for?
- What do you want to remember about the people around you now?
- What is one thing you would change about today if you could?
Three examples: 1, 5 and 10 years from now
These are written for this page, to show the shape - not real letters from real people.
1 year from now
5 years from now
10 years from now
If this is a class assignment
Most “letter to your future self” assignments ask for the same parts: who you are now, what you want to achieve, what you are unsure about, and a message to the older you. Use the Step 1 template, and replace the money and work questions with school ones:
- What subject do you like most right now, and why?
- What do you want to be good at by graduation?
- Who are your friends this year?
- What is hard for you at school right now?
- What do you think you will be doing after school?
If your teacher allows it, add the Step 2 reply. It turns the assignment from a description into a conversation.
Where to keep the letter until the date
The simplest ways work best:
- A sealed envelope with the opening date written on the front, somewhere you will see it once a year.
- A calendar event on the opening date, with the letter pasted into the event notes.
- A document or note on your phone, with a reminder set for the date.
Whichever you pick, set a second reminder halfway to the date. Re-reading the promise you made is more useful than discovering it years later.
What the research says about writing to your future self
Yuta Chishima and Anne Wilson tested a letter-exchange exercise with students at a Japanese vocational high school: students wrote a letter to their self three years ahead, then wrote a reply from that future self’s perspective - about 30 minutes in total. In their second study, students who wrote both letters felt more connected to their future selves right after the sessions; students who wrote only the first letter did not. A month later, the two-letter group reported more intensive career planning and more willingness to keep studying when tempted not to. The authors note the research was done only in Japan.
Sources: Chishima & Wilson (2021), Self and Identity · the authors’ summary (SPSP, 2020)
The wider research on future self-continuity - including a 2026 randomized trial in which future-self exercises made the future self feel more vivid and connected, but most gains faded within months - is summarized in future self-continuity.