There is evidence that prompting people to reflect on and tell their life stories in writing – a process called “life review therapy” – could be psychologically beneficial.

In a recent paper in the Journal of Personality, Kristina L Steiner at Denison University in Ohio and her colleagues reported that writing about chapters in your life does indeed lead to a modest, temporary self-esteem boost, and that in fact this benefit arises regardless of how positive your stories are.

The researchers said: “Our findings suggest that the experience of systematically reviewing one’s life and identifying, describing and conceptually linking life chapters may serve to enhance the self, even in the absence of increased self-concept clarity and meaning.” If you are currently lacking much confidence and feel like you could benefit from an ego boost, it could be worth giving the life-chapter task a go. It’s true that the self-esteem benefits of the exercise were small, but as Steiner’s team noted, “the costs are low” too.