I used to think making my bed was completely redundant. It didn’t make sense to me. Why was I supposed to make the bed look good in the morning, spend all day doing other things, only to come back at night and mess it up instantly?
My parents tried and tried to work this into my routine, but it was a constant struggle. I wasn’t OK doing something I thought was pointless. As soon as I moved out, my bed looked like scrambled eggs 24/7 for years.
Until recently…
For the past 3 months, I’ve made my bed every single day. Without fail. Before you get too impressed though, I will say: Making your bed really isn’t hard.
There wasn’t a specific moment when I made a conscious decision to do this. There was definitely some reasoning behind it, but it just kind of merged into a daily habit that made sense. I had just wrapped up my cross-country RV tour, and I was craving some sort of structure.
Making my bed every day became an integral part of that structure. It allows me to start my day off with a sense of organization. When I’m in a tired haze after just waking up and popping out of bed, my brain feels exactly how my bed looks: Totally scrambled.
I’m a hands-on learner, so taking a few extra seconds to physically straighten up my bed brings a sort of organizational clarity to my mind. This is powerful at the very beginning of a day.
It also gives me a sense of control; a feeling of being in the drivers seat. My bed may have consumed me all night, but the moment I wake up, I’m in charge.
The first thing I’ve done that day is successfully accomplish a problem. This immediately creates a sense of confidence in your ability to step up and tackle problems without hesitation.
“The bed was messy and I made it clean.”
You can say this with pride.
Yes, it is a small and mostly insignificant problem, but it’s not about the bed. It’s about what your brain goes through when you make your bed. Do not underestimate the momentum that can be built from this. Even the smallest steps done at the right time build on each other to create a day full of intense productivity.
Now, it’s important to note – making my bed isn’t the magic formula for a perfectly productive day. Of course I have days where I make my bed and then everything else goes to shit.
But, picture this: on the worst day possible, I’ll come back home, cursing myself for everything that went wrong, and I’ll be greeted by my nicely made bed. It serves as a token of my accomplishment. A reminder that, in the storm of everything going wrong, I was still able to keep one small part of my life under control.
That ends the day on a positive note and allows me to start fresh the next day.
Tim Ferriss talks about this in his podcast, along with other morning rituals.
Try it out. It takes 10 seconds each day. That’s not a very high cost for the potential reward.
Photo Credit: Jess Dalene