A guide, with prompts

Letter to your future self: 40 prompts, and how to send it

A letter to your future self is a message you write today and read on a date you choose: next week, next year, in ten years. This page gives you the prompts to start, and one idea most guides skip: you don’t have to write it. You can say it.

By Fabrizio D’Urso, who created Lumideo. Updated September 2026.

Why write to your future self

Because you forget. Not the big events, those stay. You forget what you were worried about, what you wanted, what a normal Tuesday looked like, what you thought would happen. A year from now you’ll remember the result and not the doubt that came before it.

A letter keeps the doubt. It lets the person you’ll be meet the person you are now, with nothing rewritten afterwards. That’s the whole point, and it’s also why the best letters are the ordinary ones.

How to do it in five minutes

1. Pick the date first. It decides what you say. A week from now is a note; a year from now is a letter; ten years is a conversation with a stranger who happens to be you.
2. Pick three prompts from the list below. Not ten. Three questions answered honestly beat a page of general thoughts.
3. Say what’s true today, including the small things: where you are, what you had for lunch, who you talked to. Those are the lines you’ll read twice.
4. End with a question for the future you. It turns the letter into something you answer when it arrives.
5. Seal it somewhere you can’t open it early. A drawer works until the day you get curious.

40 prompts, by how far ahead

Pick three. Answer them as if nobody else will ever read it, because nobody will.

For one week or one month from now

1. What are you worried about right now, and how do you think it will turn out?
2. What are you waiting for this week?
3. What did you do today that you’d like to keep doing?
4. Who did you talk to today, and what about?
5. What’s one thing you’re putting off? Did you do it?
6. How are you sleeping?
7. What song is stuck in your head?
8. What would make next month a good month?

For one year from now

9. Describe a normal day in your life right now, from the moment you wake up.
10. What are you proud of this year, even if nobody noticed?
11. Where do you think you’ll be living a year from now?
12. Which friendship matters most to you right now?
13. What are you learning, and why?
14. What does your work look like, and do you like it?
15. What decision are you trying to make?
16. What are you spending too much time on?
17. What would you tell the version of you from a year ago?
18. What do you hope has changed? What do you hope hasn’t?
19. How much do things cost right now? Coffee, rent, a train ticket.
20. What’s one thing you’re sure about? Check it when this opens.

For five or ten years from now

21. What do you think matters most in life, today?
22. Who are the people you can’t imagine your life without?
23. What are you afraid of becoming?
24. What would you like to have tried by then, even if it didn’t work?
25. What do your parents or grandparents say that you’d like to remember in their words?
26. Describe the room you’re in right now.
27. What do you think the world will be like? Be specific, so you can check.
28. What would you forgive yourself for in advance?
29. What question do you want your future self to answer honestly?
30. If you only had one sentence for yourself in ten years, what would it be?

For a specific day

31. Your next birthday: how do you feel about the age you’re turning?
32. New Year’s Eve: what do you want this year to have been?
33. Before a big exam or interview: what do you want to remember walking in?
34. The first day of a new job: why did you say yes?
35. Before a move: what will you miss about this place?
36. Before a trip: what are you hoping to find?
37. On your wedding anniversary: what do you love about the other person today?
38. When a baby is born: what do you want them to know about this week?
39. Graduation: what did you actually learn?
40. Any ordinary day: nothing special happened today. Say what it was like anyway.

Why say it on video

A letter keeps what you thought. A video also keeps how you were: your face, your voice, the room behind you, the way you laughed at your own sentence. Those are exactly the things you can’t remember a year later, because you never thought to write them down.

It’s also easier. Most people get stuck on the first line of a letter. Nobody gets stuck talking for a minute to a camera about their week.

That’s what Lumideo does: you record a video, choose a date, and it’s sealed until then. Nobody can open it early, not you and not us, because the date is checked on our servers. On the day, you get an email with a link and the video plays in your browser.

Four mistakes that make it fall flat

1. Writing a speech. Advice to your future self ages badly. What you’re living right now doesn’t.
2. Only saying the big things. Goals and resolutions are what you’ll remember anyway. The details are what you’ll lose.
3. Picking a date too far away for a first try. Start with a week or a month. Seeing one come back makes the next one easier to record.
4. Keeping it where you can open it. If you can open it early, sooner or later you will.

Questions

How far in the future should it open?

One year is the most common choice, and a good first one: long enough for things to change, short enough that you still remember writing it. One week works as a test. Five or ten years is for the letters that ask the big questions.

Can I open it before the date?

Not with Lumideo. Once a capsule is sealed, nobody can open it early, not you and not us. The date is checked on our servers, so changing the clock on your phone does not open anything.

Is it free?

Yes. From the browser you can record a video of up to sixty seconds for your future self, for one week, one month or one year ahead, for free. The free app goes up to two minutes and two years ahead; Premium goes up to ten minutes and twenty years.

Do I need to install an app?

No. You can record from the browser and, on the day it opens, watch it from a link in your email. The app is for longer videos, longer dates and sending capsules to other people.

Can I send it to someone else instead?

Yes, from the Lumideo app. The person does not need the app: on the day it opens they get an email with a link, and the video plays in their browser.