The future can feel almost unlimited when you think about it one year at a time. This exercise is meant to make it more tangible: to help you see the seasons ahead, the people you hope to share them with, and the things you want to make room for while the timing is right.
Start by adding the people who matter to you. Then divide the years ahead into a few meaningful chapters and think about what you want each one to be about. Finally, add the trips, milestones, goals, moves, and other experiences you hope to make happen.
You don’t need to have it all figured out. Start with ideas. You can decide what you’re ready to commit to as you go.
Nothing you enter is sent anywhere. Your progress is stored only in this browser session unless you save it. Use Save progress if you want to return to this exercise later.
Want to see how it fits together first? Your own is set aside while you do, and comes back untouched.
PeopleBehind the numbers
Age is the year minus the birth year, so it is the age reached during that year.
Launch is assumed to be the fall after 12th grade. Change the kindergarten year for a held-back or skipped year and everything downstream follows. Grades run pre-K, K, 1st through 12th, then four college years, which count as away from home.
A chapter's "summers with everyone home" counts this summer until September, then starts with next year's. Anniversaries use the calendar year, since only the year is asked for.
The timeline runs to the last year an adult on the timeline is expected to be alive, using a life expectancy of 90 unless you enter one. It grows only if a chapter or note needs more room.
Chapters can overlap and leave gaps. Each chapter's summers, anniversaries, and notes count the years inside it, so a note in two chapters shows up in both.
Nothing you type is sent anywhere. The page runs entirely in your browser. Save progress downloads a file you can reopen here; Print / Save as PDF makes a readable copy. Saving again after changes makes a new file; the old one is untouched.
Drop a downloaded copy of Life in Chapters here to open it
