Every day should be passed as if it were to be our last.

Treating a day as though it might be the last one is not an instruction to do something dramatic. It is a way of noticing what you would not want left unsaid or undone, which is usually smaller and closer to hand than expected: a phone call, a kindness, an hour given properly to someone. Most people find the list is short and mainly about other people.

Without dwelling on it, ask what would trouble you if today were the whole of it. Do that one thing before the evening. Then get on with the ordinary business, which is also part of a life well spent.