Yesterday is read-only. You can comment on it, but you can’t edit it.

The past is fixed and your relationship to it is not. Nothing you do now alters what happened, which means hours spent arguing with it are hours spent on the one thing that cannot move. Understanding it, learning from it and telling it differently are all still available.

When you catch yourself reworking an old scene, notice that you are editing something already published. Ask what it has to teach the next version instead, and take that with you. Then let the day you are actually in have your attention, since that is the part still being written.