A free life-story timeline
Life timeline template
A life-story timeline is a set of memory notes in the order you choose. Add a few moments with approximate or unknown dates, then download the notes as text or print them. You do not need an account.
No account needed · Approximate dates welcome · Print or download
Start with three moments. Dates are optional, and nothing is automatically dated or researched. Your draft can be restored in the same tab for 24 hours after your last edit. Closing the tab can remove it; download a copy when you want to keep it.
Prefer paper? Download the two-page decade template (PDF) or one-decade detail sheet (PDF). Both are free, with no sign-in.
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How to make a timeline of your life
This personal timeline template is a place to organize your own memories. Start with three moments, in any order. Add a year only when you know it. “Before the move,” “during high school,” and an empty date are all useful starting points.
- Name a moment. Use a small subject: the first bus ride, a kitchen conversation, a job you learned.
- Keep the context. Note a place, people and what you remember. Put photo references, other people's accounts and open questions in the source field.
- Choose your order. Move moments earlier or later yourself. Nothing is automatically dated or filled in.
- Keep it, or develop one scene. Review and download the timeline. Choose one moment if you want to continue into MemoirWell's guided interview.
When two people remember it differently
What do you remember? is for your own recollection. In Sources and things you are unsure about, label each account with the person's name, initials or relationship and when they shared it. If you do not know when, say so. Put the disagreement or open question beside those accounts instead of choosing a winner.
Leave the When was this? field blank or use an explicitly uncertain period. Keep longer interviews and documents separately; this field holds brief notes. The worksheet does not compare sources or establish which version is true.
Choose a printable life timeline template
The two-page template has space for each decade, from childhood to ages 90 and beyond. Cross out the age labels and write your own periods if that is more useful. Empty boxes are fine; this is not a checklist of achievements.
Download the decade template - 2 pages (PDF)
For one period in more detail, use the one-page sheet with four moments. Write an approximate date or “date unknown,” the scene, people and what supports or complicates the memory.
Download one-decade detail - 1 page (PDF)
Print and write by hand. Free to share in family or community story sessions. The online worksheet above is available if you prefer typing.
An invented example
A life timeline example in 12 moments
This fictional life includes ordinary scenes as well as changes. It is one possible order, not a set of milestones everyone should have. Leave gaps and keep dates uncertain when they are uncertain.
Around 1978?
The long walk to school
I remember the bakery window. My brother thinks we used a different route that year.
After we moved
Saturday at the repair shop
I sorted screws into jars. The shop's name needs checking in a photograph.
Date not recorded
Teaching someone else
I showed a younger cousin how to patch a bicycle tire. I remember the action, not the year.
Late 1980s, perhaps
My first paid shift
I stacked boxes before the shop opened. My own memory; the year has not been checked.
A year or two later
The evening class
I arrived with a notebook still dusty from work. An old timetable might help with the date.
Early 1990s?
A room of my own
The table wobbled, so I folded cardboard under one leg. I do not remember the month.
After the first winter there
Learning the neighbors' names
We carried shopping upstairs together. My neighbor remembers a different first meeting; keep both accounts.
Around 2002
Growing tomatoes in a bucket
I checked the small green fruit each morning. A dated photograph suggests the year, but I have not read its back yet.
A few summers later
The community lunch
I made too much soup and took it next door. This is a recollection, not a date taken from a record.
Around 2016?
Changing my work hours
The earlier bus left time to walk home in daylight. A work diary could confirm when this changed.
Date not recorded
Cooking together again
My cousin asked how I measured flour without scales. I remember the conversation but have no photograph.
After I stopped regular shifts
Fixing a bicycle with a neighbor
We spread the parts on a towel and took our time. The order is mine; the calendar year is still unknown.
These notes are fictional. The worksheet keeps what you write; it does not research dates or generate a life story.
Download the first three notes as a text example (1 KB). This existing worksheet export contains those three notes plus separate source notes. The third date stays “Date not recorded”; no dates were inferred. No account or email is required.
Before you start
Is this free, and can I print it?
Yes. Add your notes without an account, then choose Review my timeline. Download text, or use Print or save PDF to open your browser's print dialog. PDF availability depends on the browser or device. No subscription is required for the worksheet.
Does my timeline leave this browser?
Your draft can be restored in the same tab for 24 hours after your last edit. Closing the tab can remove it. The worksheet does not upload your entries or send them to an AI service. Downloads are saved on your device. Choosing a moment to develop carries that moment through sign-in in the same tab; adding it to an answer, saving and requesting an AI draft remain your separate actions.
What if I do not know the dates?
Leave the date blank or use your own description. There is no date picker or automatic sorting. You can keep contradictory recollections together in the sources field. This is a writing aid, not a way to establish or recover missing facts.
Can I make a timeline with my parent?
Yes. Let them choose which moments to include and how to describe them. Read the notes back, keep their wording, and agree who may see the saved or printed copy. They can skip any subject. To develop a scene in MemoirWell, the storyteller uses their own account. Their book stays in that account, and they can choose to share a downloaded copy.