I have an idea of a time-line when considering the long term (years to thousands of years) because there are events and periods in the past that I have a reason to locate and recall.

On a sub-year basis there's so little structure in modern life (other than, in some climates, pronounced seasons) the year doesn't seem like a concrete idea but a bookkeeping abstraction. Actually the idea of significant cyclical structure in life evokes a kind of new-agey mysticism.