The idea of using events to measure time is a good one. After all, a beam of light is the perfect clock because it will always be found to travel at the speed of c. The problem is that a beam of light can only be used to measure the passage of time in your reference frame. All spacetime is relative.
I like to think that the idea of time is irrelevant; that everything is going to happen a certain way and thus we might as well think of it as having already happened.
Otherwise, there isn't much perceptual difference between the past and the future. Memory is only so good, and I'd say I know what is going to happen as well as I know what has happened in the past. i.e. predicting the future and remembering the past are interestingly similar processes, in my opinion.
Every day I am thankful that I was introduced to psychedelic drugs.