Future Self Journaling: How to Start, Plus 30 Prompts

Future self journaling means spending about five minutes a day writing toward the person you’re becoming. Each morning you describe that person in a sentence, pick one small thing they would do today, and decide when you’ll do it. Each evening you check in: did it happen, and what got in the way? Below is a simple daily format, 30 prompts for mornings, evenings and stuck days, and an example entry you can copy.

What future self journaling is

It’s a daily, practical cousin of an exercise psychologists call “best possible self” writing. In an early study, 81 undergraduates wrote for 20 minutes a day, four days in a row, about one of four topics. Writing about their best possible future self was significantly less upsetting than writing about a trauma, and it came with a significant rise in well-being three weeks later (King, 2001).

Since then, the exercise has been tested many times. A 2019 meta-analysis pooled 29 studies with 2,909 participants and found it improved well-being, optimism and positive mood compared with control exercises, with small effects on negative mood and depressive symptoms. The authors also saw a trend, short of a firm finding, that shorter practice might work better (Carrillo et al., 2019). That’s encouraging for a five-minute habit.

Future self journaling adds two things to that exercise: it happens every day, and it always ends in one concrete action.

The 5-minute daily format

Morning (3 minutes)

1. Who I’m becoming: one sentence about the person you’re working toward. Keep it specific. “Someone who reads before bed” works better than “a better person.”
2. What they’d do today: one small action that person would take today. Small enough that you’d be embarrassed to skip it.
3. When and where: turn it into an if-then plan. “When I sit down with my coffee, I’ll read five pages.”

That third line matters more than it looks. Plans that spell out when, where and how you’ll act are called implementation intentions. A meta-analysis of 94 independent tests found they had a medium-to-large effect on reaching goals, helping people get started and stay on track when distractions show up (Gollwitzer & Sheeran, 2006).

Evening (2 minutes)

4. Did it happen? Yes, no or partly. No judgment, just the fact.
5. What helped or got in the way? One line.
6. One thing future me would thank me for today. Even if the plan fell apart, find one.

30 future self journaling prompts

Use one or two a day on top of the format above, or swap one in when the format feels stale.

Morning prompts

1. What does a normal Tuesday look like for the person I’m becoming?
2. What would future me do in the first ten minutes after waking up?
3. What’s one thing future me no longer puts off?
4. How does future me talk to themselves after a mistake?
5. What would future me eat for lunch today, and why?
6. Who would future me check in with this week?
7. What’s one thing future me says no to?
8. Which part of today would future me protect from interruptions?
9. What does future me do when they feel like quitting?
10. If future me left me a sticky note this morning, what would it say?

Evening prompts

11. Where did I act like the person I’m becoming today?
12. Where did old habits win, and what was happening right before?
13. What’s one thing I’d do differently tomorrow?
14. What did I learn about myself today?
15. What drained my energy, and what gave it back?
16. What am I grateful for that past me would have hoped for?
17. What would I tell a friend who had the day I had?
18. Which small choice today will matter in a year?
19. What did I avoid today, and why?
20. What’s tomorrow’s one small action, and when will I do it?

Prompts for when you’re stuck or having a hard day

21. What’s the smallest possible version of today’s action? Can I do that?
22. What would future me say about today, looking back from a year away?
23. What am I actually afraid of here?
24. What has worked for me before when I felt like this?
25. What’s one thing I can take off my plate so the important thing fits?
26. If I only did one thing today, which would make tomorrow easier?
27. Who could I ask for help, and what would I ask?
28. What evidence do I have that I can do hard things?
29. What would “good enough” look like today?
30. What do I need right now: rest, movement, food, people or quiet?

An example entry

Morning. I’m becoming someone who moves every day, even on busy days. Today, future me would go for a 15-minute walk. When I close my laptop for lunch, I’ll put my shoes on and walk around the block.

Evening. Partly. I walked for 8 minutes because a call ran late. What got in the way: I didn’t block the time. Future me would thank me for not skipping it completely. Tomorrow: same walk, and I’ll put it in my calendar at 12:30.

That’s the whole thing. It took less than five minutes, and the evening note already improved tomorrow’s plan.

Tips that keep it going

• Tie it to something you already do. Write right after your first coffee or right before you brush your teeth at night.
• Make the future self vivid and kind. A review of research on how people relate to their future selves found that when the future self feels similar to you now, vivid and realistic, and seen in a positive light, people make more choices that pay off later (Hershfield, 2011). So describe them concretely: where they live, how they spend a Saturday, how they speak to themselves.
• Read back once a week. Look for patterns in what helped and what got in the way.
• Write a bigger letter once a year. A letter to your future self is a good way to set the direction your daily entries point toward.

If you’d rather see that future self than write about them, try our future self visualization script.

Today’s small step

Open a notebook or a notes app and write three lines: one sentence about who you’re becoming, one small thing that person would do today, and when you’ll do it. Then set a reminder for tonight to write whether it happened.