Should I write a letter to my future self?

What the letter is actually for

Memory is a generous editor. Once you know how something turned out, it is hard to recall what you expected beforehand, and psychologists have a name for that tendency: hindsight bias. A letter written now cannot be edited later. It shows you what you really thought, not what you now remember thinking.

There is a quieter reason too. Research led by the psychologist Hal Hershfield suggests that many people think about their future self a little like a stranger, and that people who feel more connected to that future self tend to make more patient choices, such as saving. Writing directly to that person is a small, practical way to treat them as someone real.

Choose how far ahead

One year is a good distance for a first letter. It is long enough for things to change and short enough that the writer still feels like you. Five or ten years turns it into a time capsule, which is lovely but harder to keep track of.

Tie the date to something that will happen anyway: a birthday, New Year, the end of a course or a contract. A letter for "some day" is a letter that never gets opened. For one specific change, such as a new job, three to six months can be the right distance.

If you cannot decide, write two short letters, one for a year and one for five, on the same evening. Notice how differently you write to each. You may find the nearer reader gets your worries and the further one gets your hopes.

What to put in it

Start with a snapshot of an ordinary week: what you cook on a weeknight, how you get to work, the song you keep replaying, what a coffee costs. A 2014 study led by Ting Zhang found that people tended to underestimate how interested they would later be in rereading records of ordinary moments, such as a recent conversation. The everyday detail you nearly leave out is often the part you enjoy most.

Then add three things: what you are worried about, what you predict, and what you want to ask. Make predictions specific enough to check, "I think I will still be living here" rather than "I hope things are better". Questions work well too. Did you ever call her back? Are you still running on Sundays? Is the thing keeping me up at night still a thing?

What to leave out

Leave out orders. A letter full of "you had better have" turns a conversation into an exam, and the person reading it will have had reasons you cannot see from here. Write goals as questions or hopes, so a missed one is information rather than failure.

Leave out anything that would cause harm if the letter were found early: passwords, other people's private details, unkind lines about the people you live with. Assume someone might open it before you do.

Make sure it arrives

A letter only works if you find it again. On paper, seal it, write the opening date on the envelope, and add a calendar reminder for that date that says exactly where the envelope is. Digitally, save it as a document and put the file, or its location, in a calendar event.

Websites that email you a letter on a future date are convenient, but email addresses change and services close. Whatever you use, keep a second copy somewhere you control.

When the day comes

Read it once, slowly, then write back. A reply to your past self is the half of this exercise that is easiest to skip, and it is where much of the value is: what came true, what you worried about for nothing, what you wish you could tell the person who wrote it.

Read their predictions the way you would read a friend's, with some kindness for what they could not have known. If you enjoyed the exchange, write the next letter the same day, so the conversation keeps going.

Common questions