What to write in a letter to your future self

Writing a letter to your future self doesn’t require having your life completely figured out, nor does it mean creating a strict task list for the future.

If you don’t know how to begin, starting with today is usually easiest. Where you are right now, what is taking up your time, and what you haven’t quite sorted out yet. Years down the road, it is often these ordinary details that bring back today most clearly.

Decide roughly when you’ll open it

Before writing, think about when you plan to re-read this letter. The timeframe subtly changes what you might want to record:

• In a month or six months: Write about a project you’re working on or a short-term plan;
• In a year: Write about your current work, living situation, or relationships;
• In three to five years: Focus on everyday details you take for granted right now, like your go-to lunch spot or your daily commute.

Start with ordinary details

The routine moments you assume you’ll remember can easily fade when you look back years later.

Write down what city you’re in, what the weather is like, what song you’ve been listening to on repeat, or a small thought that crossed your mind this week. You don’t need to worry about things being too trivial—specific details are often the hardest to recall long after they happen.

When I look back at my own old notes, the entries that bring back the past aren’t big milestones. For instance, I once wrote about the only small shop in my village that served wontons, soy milk, and egg-filled flatbread when I was young. To me back then, eating there felt like visiting a very fashionable place. While eating, I would glance at what the young people at the next table were wearing, feeling like sitting near them made me a bit more fashionable too.

It wasn’t a major event, but reading that note today brings back that shop and that simple sense of satisfaction. If I hadn’t written it down, those small details might not have come to mind again.

Include the things you haven’t figured out

It is fine to include hopes for the future, but it is equally worth leaving your current doubts and hesitations:

• Why has this issue been on my mind so much lately?
• What is something that might not go according to plan?
• If I end up taking a different path, what do I hope to keep?
• What part of my current life would I miss most if it changed?

Life rarely follows a strict plan, and that is completely normal. Looking back later isn’t about checking whether you reached a goal, but simply seeing what was on your mind at the time.

Leave a few questions for later

You can leave three to five simple questions for your future self to answer down the line:

• Does the thing worrying me right now still matter?
• What changed because of that small decision I made?
• Who are you still keeping in touch with?
• What is one thing about your life now that I couldn’t have imagined today?

When you open the letter in the future, you aren’t just reading old words—you can also write a reply to answer those questions.

A simple outline you can follow

If you need a quick structure to start, feel free to use this template. There’s no need to fill out every line—just start wherever you have something to say:

• Date of writing: ______
• When I plan to open this: ______
• Where I am right now: ______ (the city and surroundings)
• What I keep seeing or doing lately: ______
• What has been on my mind recently: ______
• Something I’m working on or trying out: ______
• Something I haven’t figured out yet: ______
• If life turns out differently, I hope I still remember: ______
• A question for my future self: ______?

Stopping halfway is completely fine too. This isn’t an assignment, and you don’t need to provide a complete answer for every point.

Setting a reminder to re-read it

If you write on paper, you can write an opening date on the envelope and slip it into a drawer. For plain digital files, save the document where you usually keep your files, and set a reminder in your phone’s calendar or reminders app for the date you want to open it.

If you use Inks, you can also export your letter as an MBX file and store it in your cloud drive or hard drive. An MBX file acts like a packaged time capsule: it saves not only the text of your letter, but also the stationery, fonts, photos, and doodles you used at the time. Even if a specific stationery style or font is removed from the app’s library down the road, importing your saved MBX file back into Inks will still display the letter exactly as it was created. Keep in mind that Inks is not an automated scheduled mailing service; you’ll need to keep your exported files safe and set a reminder for yourself in a calendar or reminders app—I use Apple Reminders myself.

If you’d like more tips on keeping your digital records safe over time, you can check out How to back up your digital journal and keep it readable. In the future, Inks may explore more convenient ways to handle storage and backups, but for now, the most reliable approach is keeping important files in a place you can always find.

When you’ve said what you want to say, simply save it.