It’s 7:00 am and your alarm clock just went off, somewhere deep in your head that faint sound becomes very real and loud – you’re now awake, welcome back to reality. With eyes half open, lips slightly dry, and a heavy body, your foggy brain must make a decision. Do you get up or hit the snooze button?
Whether you decide to embrace the new day and put your feet on the floor, or stay in bed a few minutes longer until your backup alarm rings, you eventually still get up.
The morning alarm is rarely pleasant, no matter which tone you use, or how softly it starts. After all, the sole purpose of that alarm is to put an end to your peaceful sleep. However, once we are awake and had our breakfast or coffee, we quickly forgive the alarm for its offence, and hurry up with our preparations to start the day. But a small detail is often lost in in the morning chaos – our messy bed.
Every night we twist and turn, pull the sheets around, adjust our covers, and flip our pillows in the everlasting search for the colder side. After waking up we throw our pajamas on that mess, maybe even some clothes as we try on different outfits in the morning. By the time we leave our bedrooms for the day, we made enough of a mess to make a small hurricane proud. And just like with the alarm, we forget all about our beds until we return to them at night… so tired and so oblivious to the environment around us that we just drop on the bed and fall asleep. And so the cycle repeats day after day, year after year. And now that many of us are working from home, and maybe even from bed, why would you bother making your bed?
However, the seemingly innocent activity of leaving your bed in this state every morning has consequences. Making your bed is a quick and simple task, but unlike brushing your teeth, it has no immediate benefits (aside from aesthetic value) and you’ll have to undo it at night to get back in. So, what’s the point?
The answer is simple – it allows you to take control of your day! Even if you do a minimal effort, poor job, simply throwing your sheets and covers on top of each other, you’ve still accomplished a task. You willingly chose to do something just for the sake of completion, and you did it in the morning – when your body resists work, and time seems to tick away at twice its regular speed. It might not seem like much, but in doing so you just declared to the world that you will not surrender to the path of least resistance.
Now you’re on a roll, if you finished one task what can possibly stop you from finishing another one? Replace that burnt-out light bulb in your hallway, clean your workstation, file your taxes, ask for more responsibilities at work, and start on that business idea you’ve had for the past 5 years. Action leads to action, nature is governed by the law of inertia and so are you.
“Success is the sum of small efforts – repeated day in and day out” – Robert Collier
Not to say that you can’t accomplish the above because your bed wasn’t made, but if you did, suddenly other tasks become easier. You chose to be productive from the moment you woke up, and this choice will continue propagating through other tasks that day as well. But should you fall from the path, should your day not go as planned, if nothing seems to work and you find yourself lost, just remember the words of Admiral William H. McRaven: “if by chance you have a miserable day, you will come home to a bed that is made — that you made — and a made bed gives you encouragement that tomorrow will be better.”
After reading this article you might still argue that making your bed is not important, and I would agree with you. The specific action of making your bed is not important, but consistently completing the same simple task first thing in the morning is. Making your bed just happens to be one such task. Maybe for you it’s walking the dog, doing an early morning workout, reading a chapter from your book, or cook a healthy breakfast. Whatever action you choose, make sure that you do it every morning without fail and I guarantee your days will become more productive.
By the way, if you do choose to make your bed (or just want a good laugh), here is a video of the best way to do it by a U.S. Marine drill instructor:
