How to Write a New Year Letter to Your Future Self (With an Example)

A New Year letter to your future self is a letter you write as one year ends and read later: halfway through the next year, or on the following New Year's Day. It takes about twenty minutes, and it is one of the few New Year traditions people actually enjoy keeping.

The timing helps. Researchers at Wharton found that people are more motivated to work on their goals after "temporal landmarks" such as the start of a new year, a new month or a birthday. They call it the fresh start effect. A letter written at New Year catches that moment and saves it for later.

Here is each step in more detail.

Before you start: pick the day you will open it

Decide when the letter should arrive before you write it, because it changes what you say.

• Halfway through the year. A check-in in the summer. There is still time to change course if the year isn't going the way you hoped.
• Next New Year's Day. The classic choice. You read last year's letter, then write the next one.
• Several years from now. Five or ten years works well for bigger questions: where you live, who you are close to, what you do.

Then find twenty quiet minutes. You don't need more.

Step 1: Start with today

Write the date and where you are. Then describe your life as it is right now, in small details: your routine, the people you see most, what you are reading or listening to, what is on your mind.

These details feel ordinary today. In a year they are what you will enjoy reading most.

Step 2: Look back on the year

Write a few lines about the year that is ending. What happened, what surprised you, what you learned, who helped you. Be honest. Nobody else is going to read this.

Step 3: Write hopes, not resolutions

Resolutions read like a scorecard: lose ten kilos, read fifty books. When the letter arrives, a scorecard makes you feel judged.

Write what you hope for instead, the way you would talk to a friend: "I hope you went back to swimming." "I hope you see more of Sam." "I hope work feels calmer than it does today." Hopes leave room for the year to go differently, and they are kinder to read.

Step 4: Leave a note for a hard day

Some years are hard. Write a few lines for the version of you who opens the letter after a difficult stretch: what has helped before, who you can call, what you know about yourself that stays true on a bad day.

Step 5: Ask a few questions

End with one or two questions for your future self. Did you do the thing you keep talking about? Was the worry worth it? What are you looking forward to now? Questions turn the letter into a conversation across the year.

If you get stuck at any step, use our 50 prompts for a New Year letter.

Step 6: Seal it and choose the day

The hardest part of a letter to your future self is not reading it early, and remembering it exists. You can seal a handwritten letter in an envelope, write the opening date on the front and set a calendar reminder. Or you can write it online and have it delivered on the day you choose. It stays sealed until then.

How long should a New Year letter be?

There is no right length. Most good New Year letters are a few paragraphs, roughly a page. Write until you have said what matters, then stop.

Mistakes to avoid

• Turning it into a to-do list. A list of targets is a plan, not a letter.
• Being harsh. Write to your future self the way you would write to a friend you care about.
• Writing for an audience. Leave out what you would say to impress someone. Keep what is true.
• Leaving it unfinished. Ten minutes and three paragraphs is better than a perfect letter you never send.

An example of a New Year letter to yourself

Dear me,

It's 31 December, a little after ten, and I'm writing this at the kitchen table while everyone else is watching TV. This year was busier than I wanted. I changed jobs in March and I'm still not sure it was the right call, but I'm glad I tried.

Right now I walk to the station every morning, I'm halfway through a book I keep forgetting to finish, and I talk to Mum on Sundays. I worry about money more than I'd like to admit.

By the time you read this, I hope you've stopped checking your phone first thing in the morning. I hope you went back to swimming. I hope you finally booked the trip we keep talking about.

If the year was hard, remember that this one was hard too, and you got through it. Call someone. Go outside. It passes.

Did the new job work out? Are you happy?

Me, at the end of the year

Make it a tradition

The best part comes a year later. Read last year's letter on New Year's Day, then write the next one. After a few years you have a record of who you were each December, in your own words.

Write this year's letter now. It takes a few minutes, and it's free.