Making your bed each morning requires just a bit of time and effort, but at a time of day when we have little time or energy to spare. If you think it doesn’t really matter whether you make your bed or not because nobody but you sees it and it gets messed up each night anyway is logical, but the logic behind this argument is somehow flawed.
Prioritizing making your bed and working it into your morning routine may benefit you in the following ways.
Happiness
In “The Happiness Project,” bestselling author Gretchen Rubin discusses the impact that making your bed each morning can have on your day. Taking three minutes to make your bed will give you the feeling of having accomplished something early on, which can boost your mood and set the tone for the day. In her blog, Rubin writes this habit is the simple change readers who wrote her most frequently referenced as making a change in their lives. She also acknowledges some people may garner satisfaction of equal proportions from not making their bed, but this segment of the population is relatively small.
Improved Time and Money Management Skills
On the face of it, it may not sound sensible that making your bed can actually help you free up time to stay on top of all that your busy schedule ordains. Yet as a keystone habit, this is a well-documented effect. In most cases, this act leads people to adopt other good habits and waste less time. Studies, commented on by reporter Charles Duhigg and others, have found making your bed each day, along with exercising at least once a week, helps people to rein in their spending habits, stick to their budgets, save more, and live healthier lives.
Boost Productivity
If the positive effects of making your bed daily already sound good to you, brace yourself…this simple habit can also increase your productivity. Why? Because small accomplishments can encourage the pursuit of your goals and lead to success in your work and personal lives. That happiness described above, if you experience it, will carry you along in your pursuit of productivity.
Organization
Making your bed can make your bedroom feel clean and less cluttered. It might even influence you to become more organized. Start by making your bed each morning until it feels like second nature, and then add other organization-centric habits such as sorting through junk in your pockets or purse or draft a short-term to-do list before you go to bed. Slowly introduce de-cluttering your bedroom floor, closet, and so on.
If making your bed makes it easier for you to Live Life + Love Life, then adopt the habit. Give the practice a shot for a month, and see if you notice any difference in your attitude or your day-to-day productivity.
Do you make your bed on a daily basis? Share why or why not in the comments?
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View All Posts by Jason Ernst