How Your Life Story Timeline Can Set the Stage for Your Legacy Book Project

You actually don’t need to begin by writing down your stories!

When you think about writing a book about your life, you might think you just need to dive in and start writing about your memories. But that’s not necessarily the best place to start.

We suggest that before you start to write whatever comes to mind, or even to respond to prompts (like the ones we provide in our free Life Story Starter Prompts ebook), you begin creating your Life Story Timeline.

What do we mean by a “Life Story Timeline”? A Life Story Timeline is a structured account of your life’s main events in chronological order. But before you get overwhelmed, thinking the task seems insurmountable, we are not suggesting that you have to remember what you were doing when you were 3, 13, or 30. We mean that when the Timeline is complete, you’ll have a very comprehensive, chronological outline of your life, all without having to rack your brain for memories!

To get to this final stage of a completed Life Story Timeline, you simply need to proceed through the creation of the Timeline systematically. Here’s how it works.

How to Use the Life Story Timeline Spreadsheet

You start with something like our free Life Story Timeline template spreadsheet , which has 100 rows and 9 columns. This is what the spreadsheet looks like:

• Column 1 is a list of numbers, from 0 to 99. These represent your ages.
• Column 2 is the year. In our template, this column is (obviously) blank since not everyone was born in the same year. You’ll want to fill in this column so that the year matches your age.
  • NOTE ABOUT INPUTTING THE YEARS: Yes, we realize that not everyone was born on January 1, so they’re not the same age all year long. You’ll have to decide how you want to record the years. For example, if you were born in December of 1940, in 1940 you were 0 years old, but for most of 1941 you were also 0 years old. So next to year 0 in the worksheet, you might write 1940 & 1941. Then, next to age 1, you could write 1942; age 2 would then be 1943, and so on. It’s entirely up to you how you want to handle it! The important thing is to record the years on the worksheet so that it’s easier to record a memory if you remember the year more than your age for an event.
• Columns 3-9 are each a different category with specific questions that help you focus on just one domain as you recall your history.
  • GEOGRAPHY: Where did you live? When did you move? What significant trips did you take?
  • FAMILY: Who were you living with (e.g., parents, spouse, alone)? What family changes occurred, like births, deaths, or marriages?
  • EDUCATION: Which schools did you attend? When did you graduate or experience key academic events?
  • CAREER: What jobs did you hold? When did you receive promotions, take business trips, or retire?
  • HEALTH: What health scares, diagnoses, treatments, or surgeries did you experience?
  • SPIRITUAL: What defined your spiritual journey? What challenges or milestones shaped your beliefs?
  • OTHER EVENTS: What significant moments happened that don’t fit other categories (e.g., publishing a book, volunteering abroad)?

Why Start with a Life Story Timeline?

Your Life Story Timeline is the foundation of your legacy book, outlining your life’s journey from birth to age 99. It organizes key events, sparks your memories, and inspires your loved ones to ask more questions about your story. Perhaps they’ll see something you’ve written down that they didn’t know about and ask you to share more about it. This helps you focus on what you want to talk about in your legacy book.

Tips for Completing the Life Story Timeline

• START SIMPLE: Start by filling out an easy category, like geography or family, to help you build momentum.
• SKIP ROWS FREELY: If nothing significant happened at a certain age or year, simply skip the row. Just focus on meaningful moments.
• JOT DOWN NOTES: If in the process of creating the Timeline, you are inspired to share specific stories about your life, jot down a note so you’ll remember to address it as you record your narrative. Choose a single location to record your notes and brainstorm topics to discuss.
• COMBINE THE TIMELINE: Once you have completed the Life Story Timeline spreadsheet to your satisfaction, the information from all seven categories can be combined into a single comprehensive Timeline in your finished legacy book. See the download page for full instructions on how to compile the combined Life Story Timeline from the completed spreadsheet.

Ready to Get Started?

• Download the free Life Story Timeline spreadsheet and start filling out the information for each of the seven categories.
• Jot down any ideas or stories you want to talk about in your legacy book.
• Reach out to us for a free, no-obligation consultation to discuss how we might be able to help you complete your legacy project.