A letter from your future self: how to write one, plus 40 future self journaling prompts

The short answer

A letter from your future self is a short letter you write as yourself, about a year from now, to the person you are today. It works best as a one-page scene: where you are, what you remember about today, a thank-you, one thing you know now, and one small request for this week. Research on future self-continuity suggests that making future you feel this close and real helps people act for them.

Search for "future self letter" and almost everything you find is about writing to your future self. Seal it in an envelope, open it in five years, see what changed. It's a lovely exercise, and it has some research behind it.

This piece is about the other direction. You write a letter from future you, about a year from now, addressed to the person reading this today. It's warmer than it sounds, and a little strange the first time. It's also often easier to write than you'd expect, because future you already knows how the year went and isn't nervous about it.

The template, a sample letter and 40 prompts sorted by goal are below. First, why this kind of writing gets to people.

Why write to future you at all

A UCLA psychologist named Hal Hershfield has spent years on one question: how connected do you feel to the person you'll be later? For a lot of us, that person feels a bit like a stranger. And we tend to treat a stranger's needs as less urgent than our own.

In one set of studies, Hershfield and colleagues showed people realistic, aged versions of their own faces. People who met their older selves this way chose to set aside more money for later in a hypothetical retirement task than people who saw their current faces (Hershfield et al., 2011).

Letters show up in this research too. In a 2013 study, people who wrote a letter to their future self, or spent time with an aged avatar of themselves, made fewer dishonest choices in a lab task afterward (van Gelder, Hershfield & Nordgren, 2013). In another, students who wrote to themselves twenty years ahead, and came away feeling closer to that person, exercised more in the days that followed (Rutchick et al., 2018). Spending a few minutes with future you, even on paper, seems to bring that person a little closer.

The newest version of this idea is a conversation. In a 2024 study from the MIT Media Lab, 344 people aged 18 to 30 chatted once with an AI version of their future self. After that single chat, their anxiety went down and they felt more connected to who they're becoming (Pataranutaporn et al., 2024).

So the research points one way: the more real future you feels, the more you act like that person is someone you care about. A letter is one of the easiest ways to make them real.

Why "from" lands differently than "to"

When you write to future you, you're the one asking questions. Will it work out? Are we okay? It can turn into a page of hopes and worries.

When you write from future you, you've switched seats. You're the one who already knows. Even the grammar changes, and the grammar turns out to matter.

At the University of Michigan, Ethan Kross and his colleagues ran seven studies on self-talk. When people coached themselves with "you" or their own name instead of "I," they handled stressful tasks better and saw them more as a challenge than a threat (Kross et al., 2014). A letter from future you is written in exactly that voice. "You were so nervous that week. You went anyway." It's the calm, slightly distant voice of a friend who's been there.

The other thing that changes is gratitude. Future you can thank you. Gratitude practice has some of the steadiest research in psychology: an analysis of 145 studies across 28 countries found it reliably lifts how people feel (Choi et al., 2025), and the classic study simply had people write down what they were grateful for each week (Emmons & McCullough, 2003). A letter from future you does both at once: a close, vivid future self, and a thank-you aimed at the person doing the work right now.

People who practice manifesting call this "living in the end." You don't have to use that phrase, or believe anything in particular, to try it. You're just writing from a year ahead. (If you're curious about the phrase, we explain where it comes from in the law of assumption and the 369 method.)

How to write a letter from your future self

Give yourself fifteen minutes and a real pen if you have one. Pick a specific date about a year from today and write it at the top. Then go through these parts in order. Each one is a few sentences at most.

1. Where you are

   Start with an ordinary scene on that date: the room, the time, the light, what is in your hand. Mundane details make it believable.

2. What you remember about today

   Name something true about the person reading the letter. "I remember October. You were tired and you kept checking." It is the bridge between the two of you.

3. What you are grateful for

   Thank your present self for one specific thing they did, or are about to do. Small is better.

4. One thing you know now

   Something that sounds obvious from a year out and impossible from here. Keep it about you, your habits, your home, your work, the love in your life, not another person's choices.

5. The hard part you got through

   Mention a rough patch without drama. "There was a week in February that felt like nothing was moving. It was moving."

6. One request

   A single thing to do this week. Not a plan, just one step.

7. Sign-off

   Your name, and the date from a year ahead.

A few rules keep it honest. Write in the present or past tense, never "I hope." Keep it to one page. And leave out numbers you can't control, like amounts or dates something has to happen by. The letter is a way of getting to know the person you're becoming. It isn't a contract.

A sample letter

Here's a made-up example from someone a year away from a job change. Notice how little of it is about the outcome.

October 14, next year

Hey. It's 7:40 and I'm at the small table by the window, the one you keep saying you'll clear off. It's clear now. Coffee, my laptop, the dog asleep on my feet.

I remember this week last year. You'd opened that portfolio file four times and closed it four times. You thought you'd lost the thread on the whole thing.

Thank you for opening it a fifth time. That was the morning the rest started.

Here's what I know now that you don't. Nobody looked at the portfolio as closely as you were afraid they would. They looked at whether you seemed glad to be doing the work. You were.

February was hard. You'll know it when you're in it. Keep the mornings anyway.

One thing for this week: send the email to Dana. Two sentences. You've already written it in your head.

I'm proud of you. Go eat something.

Me

That's it. It took about ten minutes. It doesn't promise a job, a salary or a date. It tells the reader what future you is like, and asks for one step.

Read it out loud, then read it again

Once the letter is written, read it out loud. Not in your head. Out loud, to an empty room if you need to.

There's a small, well-replicated memory finding called the production effect: words you say out loud are remembered better than words you read silently (MacLeod et al., 2010). A follow-up found that hearing a recording of your own voice helps memory more than hearing someone else's (Forrin & MacLeod, 2018).

That second finding is why some people record their letter on their phone and play it back in the morning. A 2025 study from MIT found something in the same spirit. People heard a message from their ideal future self in a clone of their own voice, or read it, or imagined it. Everyone improved on confidence and motivation, and the own-voice group reported the highest confidence and motivation and found it the most personal of the three (Fang et al., 2025). It was a small study, 60 people, and it fits something you may notice yourself: your own voice is hard to argue with. There's more on recording in affirmations in your own voice.

A simple routine: write the letter on a Sunday, read it out loud once, and record yourself reading it. Play the recording on the mornings you want it.

40 future self journaling prompts

Use one prompt per session, or one per letter. Each is written from future you, a year ahead. Finish the sentence in the present or past tense.

Work and money habits

1. The part of my workday I look forward to now is...
2. The thing I stopped saying yes to was...
3. When a bill comes in now, the first thing I feel is...
4. I finally asked for...
5. The skill I practiced on boring Tuesdays turned out to be...
6. My desk looks like this now...
7. The first time someone thanked me for this work, I...
8. The work I'm proudest of from this year is...
9. My morning before work goes like this...
10. The advice I'd give you about money habits is...

Love, friendship and the people around you

11. The person I call first with good news is...
12. Love feels different now because I...
13. The friend I'm glad I reached out to is...
14. On a Friday night you'll find me...
15. I don't chase people anymore. Instead I...
16. The way I talk to myself after an argument now is...
17. Someone told me recently that I make them feel...
18. The boundary I set that changed everything was...
19. The tradition I started this year is...
20. Here's what I know now about being loved...

Home and everyday life

21. When I walk through my front door, I see...
22. The first thing I do on a Saturday morning is...
23. The room I spend the most time in looks like...
24. The habit that stuck, almost by accident, was...
25. The place I went this year that I keep thinking about is...
26. My kitchen smells like...
27. The thing I finally fixed, cleared or let go of was...
28. On an ordinary weeknight, I'm...
29. The small luxury I don't feel guilty about anymore is...
30. A year ago you'd be surprised that I now...

Hard days and trusting yourself

31. The week it felt like nothing was moving, here's what was really happening...
32. When I doubted, what got me through the day was...
33. The thing I'm glad you didn't give up on is...
34. I forgave myself for...
35. On bad mornings now, I...
36. The fear that turned out smaller than it looked was...
37. Here's what I'd tell you about waiting...
38. The kindest thing I did for myself this year was...
39. The moment I realized I trusted myself was...
40. Dear me from today, here's what you didn't know yet...

If you're going through something heavier than a hard week, these prompts aren't the right tool for it, and that's okay. Talk to someone you trust, or a professional. In the US you can call or text 988 anytime.

From letter to phone call

A letter is something you have to remember to reread. That's the hard part, honestly. Most of us write one, feel great for a day, and lose it in a drawer.

If you'd rather keep it on paper, that's a good choice too. Write the letter. Read it out loud. Let future you be someone you know a little better.

Words we use

Letter from your future self

A letter written as yourself at a future date, usually about a year ahead, addressed to who you are today. The opposite direction of the classic letter to your future self.

Future self journaling

Journaling in the voice of the person you are becoming, in the present or past tense, as if the year already happened.

Living in the end

A phrase from the law of assumption: thinking and speaking from the moment after the thing you want has happened.

The numbers, with sources

• 344

  people aged 18 to 30 in an MIT Media Lab study felt less anxious and more connected to their future selves after one chat with an AI future self.

  Pataranutaporn et al., 2024

• 60

  people in an MIT study of messages from their ideal self. The own-voice group reported the highest confidence and motivation.

  Fang et al., CHI 2025

• 145

  studies from 28 countries in a meta-analysis finding gratitude practices reliably lift wellbeing.

  Choi et al., PNAS, 2025

Questions people ask

What do I write in a letter from my future self?

An ordinary scene a year from now, something you remember about today, a thank-you to your present self, one thing you know now, the hard part you got through, and one small request for this week. Keep it to one page.

What if I don't know what to write?

Start with the room. What's on the table a year from now? Once you're in the scene, the rest comes. You can also borrow one of the 40 prompts above as your first line.

Doesn't it feel like lying?

You aren't claiming it happened. You're imagining a specific version of next year clearly enough to recognize the next step. That's what the research on future self-continuity is about: making future you feel close enough to act for.

What if it doesn't turn out like the letter?

It probably won't, exactly. Write a new one in three months. The letters are less a forecast than a conversation, and conversations change.

Isn't this all in my head?

Partly, and that's fine. In one well-known trial, people who knowingly took a placebo, told plainly that it had no active ingredient, still reported feeling better than people who took nothing (Kaptchuk et al., 2010). We make no health claim here. A ritual you do on purpose, knowing exactly what it is, can still change how you feel.

Should I write to my future self or from my future self?

Both are good exercises. Writing to future you tends to collect hopes and questions. Writing from future you puts you in the seat of someone who already knows, speaking to you as "you," which is the voice the self-talk research supports.

Sources

1. Hershfield, H. E., Goldstein, D. G., Sharpe, W. F., Fox, J., Yeykelis, L., Carstensen, L. L., & Bailenson, J. N. (2011). Increasing saving behavior through age-progressed renderings of the future self. Journal of Marketing Research, 48(SPL), S23-S37. doi.org/10.1509/jmkr.48.SPL.S23
2. van Gelder, J.-L., Hershfield, H. E., & Nordgren, L. F. (2013). Vividness of the future self predicts delinquency. Psychological Science, 24(6). doi.org/10.1177/0956797612465197
3. Rutchick, A. M., et al. (2018). Future self-continuity is associated with improved health and increases exercise behavior. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 24(1), 72-80. doi.org/10.1037/xap0000153
4. Pataranutaporn, P., et al. (2024). Future You: A conversation with an AI-generated future self reduces anxiety, negative emotions, and increases future self-continuity. MIT Media Lab, arXiv:2405.12514. arxiv.org/abs/2405.12514
5. Kross, E., et al. (2014). Self-talk as a regulatory mechanism: How you do it matters. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 106(2), 304-324. doi.org/10.1037/a0035173
6. Choi, H., Cha, Y., McCullough, M. E., Coles, N. A., & Oishi, S. (2025). PNAS, 122(28). doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2425193122
7. Emmons, R. A., & McCullough, M. E. (2003). Counting blessings versus burdens. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84(2), 377-389. doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.84.2.377
8. MacLeod, C. M., et al. (2010). The production effect: Delineation of a phenomenon. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 36. doi.org/10.1037/a0018785
9. Forrin, N. D., & MacLeod, C. M. (2018). This time it's personal: The memory benefit of hearing oneself. Memory, 26. doi.org/10.1080/09658211.2017.1383434
10. Fang, C. M., Chua, P., Chan, S., Leong, J., Bao, A., & Maes, P. (2025). Leveraging AI-generated emotional self-voice to nudge people towards their ideal selves. CHI '25. arxiv.org/html/2409.11531v2
11. Kaptchuk, T. J., et al. (2010). Placebos without deception: A randomized controlled trial in irritable bowel syndrome. PLoS ONE, 5(12), e15591. doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0015591

Future Self Call is a daily wellbeing practice, not therapy or medical care. The studies above looked at the practices it's built on, not at Future Self Call itself. Results vary from person to person.