Leave Your Future Self Notes To Reinforce Gratitude Or Lessons Learned

We know that our memories are, unfortunately, pretty crap. While there are ways to exercise your memory and improve it, blogger Joe Reddington suggests a simple alternative: send yourself notes from the past.

This trick isn’t exactly a novel idea. People have used Post-it notes and string around the finger (I assume that’s a real thing people have done) for years. However, modern technology allows you to do this months or years in advance with little clutter to pile up on your mirror and/or finger. Reddington uses events in Google Calendar to appreciate small things like not being sick, or to appreciate a friend:

It’s even better when you get into the habit, because the great thing about a trusted habit it that once you take the action, you forget about it. I got an email recently saying “Do something nice for Sam”. I have no idea why I put this in, or when I put this in, but I do know that I like Sam and so I sent him a present.

It’s an interesting thought experiment to consider your past self another person. Because there is a big difference between your past self as they were and the past self as you remember them.

This can work with more than just happy reminders that your nose (probably) functions correctly in the future. If you find yourself unable to do something fun because you didn’t budget properly, a friendly reminder a month later can help nudge you towards creating a budget. Anything you think that your future self should learn is a good candidate for a delayed reminder from past you.

Your past self is on your side. So do nice things for your future self. [Joe Reddington]