Click to visit: W W W . F U T U R E M E . O R G

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After an extended break I’m back and the first website I want to highlight is FutureMe.org. The concept of the site is absolutely brilliant and I’m not sure I can explain why anyone would want to use it, but I’m going to give it a go…

Imagine this if you will - you’ve thought of something you want to tell your future self perhaps days, weeks, months or even years down the line. You could write it down on a piece of paper, but chances are you’d lose it or forget to look on the intended date. You could try and just remember it but random thoughts are easily misplaced. So why not use a site that will email you on the date of your choice with the message your past self has written! There are many reasons why such a website is incredibly useful but I’ll name a few examples to give you an idea of how much potential there is.

Perhaps you want to remember a specific date without the hassle of signing up for a reminder service. You might want to see if you actually managed to stick to your to-do list or New Years resolutions. It could be that you have advice that you wish to pass on to yourself later on in your life, with the clarity of someone living in the here and now. Maybe you wish to know how much you or the world around you has changed. Or perhaps you just want to “surprise” yourself if you know that by the time you get your email you’ll have forgotten all about sending it.

Whatever the reason, I think most of us wish we could speak to ourselves from another time or place and FutureMe.org makes it very easy to do just there. Simply go to the site, type in the email address it’s going to, the subject, your message to yourself, decide whether others can read it or not, pick a date, type in the code and send away! You will immediately be sent a link to the email address you gave that you will need to click to activate your future email. You will also be given the chance to sign up (for free) for added benefits, including not having to repeat the verification process again.

There are however a few downsides to using the site… Firstly, is there any guarantee that the service will even be running on the date of your choice? Websites do come and go but it would be quite unfortunate if this one did. Another problem is that emails get changed all the time. If you’re going to send yourself an email that you’ll receive in the future, make sure you still have that email address! Of course, this is a moot point if you signed up for a free account as you are able to change the destination email address before it is sent.

The third point isn’t really a downside so much as something to think about. There is an option to choose whether you wish your message to be private or public (yet anonymous). The latter of the two will not give out any identifying information but it might be featured on the site or elsewhere. To read what types of public entries others are sending in you can navigate them on the website - I like using the “random” link for that - or even buy a book that features some of the best sent in.

I really like the simple yet effective idea of site and the design really matches that in my opinion. I have sent an email to myself in the future which I’ll be reading again in a few months time and hopefully, I might end up doing a follow up post about FutureMe.org around that date too.