How to write a letter to your future self

What should a letter to your future self include?

Include four things: the date and where you are, what is going on in your life right now, a few guesses about the date you will open it, and one question for your future self. Specific details are the part you will enjoy most later, such as the song on repeat or what you had for dinner last night.

Skip big advice. People rarely follow it, and a snapshot of the present is worth more than a pep talk.

How long should the wait be?

One year is a good first choice because enough changes to be interesting and you still remember writing it. Five years gives a bigger contrast. A birthday or New Year's Eve gives you a date you will not forget. Anything beyond ten years needs a plan for backups, which the last section covers.

Which prompts help when the page is blank?

Pick three or four.

• Today I am worried about...
• The thing I am most proud of this month is...
• My phone wallpaper is...
• The song on repeat is...
• I think by your date I will have...
• I hope I am still friends with...
• Something I am avoiding is...
• The people I talk to most are...
• What does a normal Tuesday look like right now?
• What do I want you to remember about this year?
• What are three things I hope you stopped doing?
• My question for you is...

Is there a short template?

This one fits on a single screen.

1. Dear me on {date},
2. Right now I am living in... and working on...
3. The three things taking most of my attention are...
4. My guesses for you: 1... 2... 3...
5. One thing I want you to check: did I...?
6. A line only I would understand.

What should I write in different situations?

Adjust the four basics (date, present, guesses, question) to the moment.

• Starting a new job: what you hope the first six months look like, what worries you, and the title you expect to hold.
• Graduating: what you think you will miss, who you expect to stay in touch with and what you plan to do first.
• Moving to a new city: the street you are leaving, a guess about when it will feel like home, and one thing you promise to keep doing.
• A heavy stretch of life: what is hard right now, what you would like to be told in a year, and one small kindness you owe yourself.
• New Year or a birthday: three guesses, one question and the song on repeat.

What if I do not like writing?

Say it out loud instead. Sealday records a voice note (30 seconds on the free plan, up to 5 minutes with Plus) and takes photos, so a letter can be mostly sound and pictures. Hearing your own voice a year later is a different experience from reading your own handwriting.

The shortest path in the app is one line to future you, an optional photo and a hold on the seal, which takes about a minute. A single honest sentence is better than a long letter you never finish.

Why include guesses, not only feelings?

Feelings are easy to reinterpret later. A guess like "I will still be at this job" can be checked, and the result is the fun part. Checking old guesses also shows how much hindsight bias bends memory, since people feel an outcome was obvious once they know it. Read how to score your predictions for a simple method.

How do I keep the letter from being read early or lost?

On paper, the temptation is yours to resist, and the risk is a lost envelope. With a digital tool, look for a real lock rather than a promise. In Sealday the content is encrypted on your phone and the key comes from the public drand beacon on the open date, as explained in the time lock page. Whatever you use, keep a second copy: an exported vault file in backup and restore does that for Sealday.

A time capsule has always been a message to people in the future; see the Wikipedia article on time capsules for its history.

What happens on the day I open it?

Plan for twenty quiet minutes. Read the letter before you grade anything, so your memory of the guesses does not color your first reaction.

1. If you allowed notifications, one local reminder arrives on the open day.
2. Open the capsule and hold to break the seal. The phone fetches the key for that date.
3. Your content appears in turn: letter, photos, voice note and guesses.
4. Grade each guess as Called it, Kind of or Missed, and add a note if you like.
5. Take a "now" photo if you sealed a "then" photo.
6. Tap Seal the next one to write a new letter for the same day next year.

What does a finished letter look like?

This example is one page and took about ten minutes.

1. Dear me on 1 January,
2. Right now I live in a flat I like and a job I am not sure about. The kitchen light still flickers.
3. The three things on my mind: whether to change jobs, the half marathon in spring, and calling my brother more.
4. My guesses for you: you will still be in this flat. You will have changed jobs. The half marathon will be done and you will say it was fine.
5. One question: did you ever call him on Sundays?
6. The song on repeat is the one with the piano. I bet you cannot hear it now without remembering this winter.

What mistakes should I avoid?

A few patterns make the letter less useful.

• Writing only advice. A snapshot of today is the part you cannot recreate.
• Making guesses too vague to check.
• Sealing for too long on the first try; one year teaches you how it feels.
• Skipping the backup. A lost phone loses the letter.
• Writing for an audience. The letter is private, so write like you talk.

Can I turn this into a yearly habit?

Yes, and one year is the easiest wait for it. A New Year or birthday capsule is part of the yearly ritual in Sealday, so it never counts toward the three waiting capsules on the free plan. If you set your birthday in the app and allow reminders, it can nudge you once, seven days before, to seal something for next year.

After three or four rounds you will own a series of snapshots, each with guesses you can score against the next. That series is the real prize of a letter to yourself.

What should I keep out of the letter?

Keep out passwords, account numbers and other people's secrets. Content in Sealday is encrypted on your phone, but a letter is a poor place for anything that stops working or becomes risky in a year.