Ever caught yourself saying, “I don’t have time”? Seneca would have laughed—or maybe sighed in disappointment. Life isn’t short. We’re just terrible at using it well.

Think about it. How much of your day is spent on things that truly matter? Not work you tolerate, not mindless distractions, not obligations you never questioned—but things that actually make you feel alive? Most of us fritter away hours in trivial pursuits, telling ourselves we’ll start living later. But later has a nasty habit of never arriving.

Picture this: someone steals $1,000 from you. Outrageous, right? But if you waste an hour doomscrolling or procrastinating on something important, do you react the same way? You should—because time is far more precious than money. You can earn more cash. You’ll never get back lost hours.

Seneca’s advice isn’t about productivity hacks or squeezing more into your day. It’s about realizing that every wasted moment is a chunk of your life you’ll never reclaim. So the real question isn’t “How much time do I have left?”—it’s “What am I doing with the time I have?”

stoicism,