Looking for a workbook for guided recollection of my life.

November 2, 2023 8:15 AM

Inspired by this 2016 post, and this one from 2015, is there a workbook or the like (paper or electronic) that would prompt me, with pertinent questions, to think about my whole life and put together a picture of who I was, have been, and am today?

I think the prompting questions would be especially helpful. Psychoanalysis sounds like overkill but that's the idea.

posted by JimN2TAW to Grab Bag (8 answers total)

Best answer: Not exactly what you’re looking for, but I just started a five year journal (pages start in 2024 but getting a head start since some important things are happening for me this tail end of the year). It has a single page for each day, divided into five so you come back and write an entry every year on the same page, and a blank page on the right for photos, sticking things in, drawing/painting, extra writing or whatever (this is where I’m putting my 2023 entries too). I plan to answer various prompts and questions over the years as sort of a running conversation, as well as just writing about my day. I’ve always really struggled with memory and connecting with my past, so I’m hoping this practice will really help open up a dialogue between my future, present and eventually past self.
posted by chives at 8:48 AM on November 2, 2023 [3 favorites]

Best answer: I like this free booklet by YearCompass for reflecting on the past year and setting goals for the next one. I don't see a new edition out yet but you could easily use the version from last year.
posted by JuliaKM at 9:00 AM on November 2, 2023 [4 favorites]

Best answer: This five-year journal has a question for each day. My goddaughter and I are each separately working through it, and it's been quite helpful in getting us both to think about things.
posted by BlahLaLa at 9:13 AM on November 2, 2023

Best answer: Sounds like you might like Burn After Writing, which lives up reasonably well to its promise of "incisive questions and thought experiments". The paper quality is horrible, though, which kinda ruins the experience of writing in it for me, but YMMV.
posted by guessthis at 9:28 AM on November 2, 2023

Best answer: I gave my aunt a storyworth subscription for Christmas some years ago based on a recommendation on metafilter, and it was a big hit! For a year storyworth will send you a quesiton a week about your life and collect your answers, which then can be printed.
posted by sohalt at 9:29 AM on November 2, 2023 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Seconding the Storyworth idea. You can tailor the questions if you want, if they are missing things you want to write about or aren't quite right. They are meant to prompt a lot of thought about your life in exactly the way you're describing. The option to have it all printed in a book at the end of hte year is fun. You can add photos, etc.
posted by LKWorking at 9:34 AM on November 2, 2023

Response by poster: Thanks for your answers so far. I'll check them out.
posted by JimN2TAW at 12:57 PM on November 2, 2023

Best answer: If you have a look on Amazon for "guided autobiography", three are several books about telling your own life story.
posted by Shark Hat at 11:42 AM on November 3, 2023