I’m a list maker and a goal setter and an idea generator. I like checking things off and assessing progress. So this thing I learned about this past week—futureme.org—is right up my alley.
Futureme.org makes it possible for you to compose an email today and send it to yourself at some future date. (One year, three years, and five years in the future are all preset for you and available, but you can customize and choose any date you’d like to receive your email from you.) Plus: It’s free.
There’s a box to write your message in; you select the date of delivery; and then you send it. There’s also an option to make the message “Private” or “Public, But Anonymous,” which I don’t really understand, so I opted for “Private,” which I do understand.
I’m setting them up as quarterly communications from myself to myself. At this point, I’m trying to do three things with these emails to Future Me:
*Assess quarterly progress I’ve made in reaching my financial, professional, and personal goals by reminding myself of those goals;
*Offer myself a reminder about the Top 10 Things that make me feel Happy and Healthy, and inviting any additions or tweaks to the list; and
*Recount funny or moving stories, observations, anecdotes that I believe Future Me will be pleased to remember.
When I completed my first message to my Future Self, I needed to confirm my email and create an account with a password. Also, every time you write an email and click “Send To The Future!”, you will be invited to become a Premium FutureMe member for $5 per year. That $5 means that your communications will be ad-free; you can include pictures; and you can send letters to others. I love that last one—sending future letters to others--but I’m going to stay at the free membership level at this point.
These past few days, I composed three letters to myself: one recounted some funny things that happened earlier this week that I thought Future Me might enjoy reliving; one was a gentle inquiry into whether I had reached a savings goal I have set for later in the year; and the third was my current Top Ten List Of Things That Make Me Happy And Are Good For My Long-Term Health, inviting Future Me to reflect on how much time I’m investing in those things, and how I might invest some more.