From ice to soil
In a 2014 commencement speech at the University of Texas at Austin, Naval Admiral William McRaven couldn’t praise it enough. He's also the author of 'Make Your Bed: Little Things That Can Change Your Life...And Maybe the World.'
There are some surprising benefits to making our beds. How we do one thing reveals a lot about our personality. How we do one thing is often how we do most things.
Making your bed has a lot to do with motivation and setting the intention for an orderly, thoughtful, responsible, balanced, or successful life.
The excuses are easy to make, but at the same time, it’s pretty easy to make our beds in the morning, too. It takes seconds.
Admiral McRaven continued to explain that by the end of the day, that one morning task completed will have turned into many tasks completed and it reinforces that the little things are important.
It starts off the day right. It might be the smallest accomplishment, but it sets the tone for the entire day.
Even better, once you are in the habit of making your bed, you’ll likely improve and decorate the appearance of your bedroom in other ways, too.
Making your bed encourages you to tidy the rest of your room. You wouldn’t tidy your entire room without making the bed.
In other words, how your bedroom looks and how it makes you feel to be inside it will usually begin as a seed, and this seed is making your bed.
According to the author Charles Duhigg in his book ‘The Power of Habit,’ making your bed daily kickstarts good decisions throughout the day and gives you a sense of feeling in charge.
It lowers your stress and improves your mood. It’s estimated that most people spend around a third of their lives in their bedrooms and our surroundings affect how we feel.
The fitted sheet was invented and patented in 1957-1958 by a woman named Bertha Berman because she didn't like messy sheets falling off the mattress.
Although there aren’t many studies on making our beds, the research draws a strong correlation between living an organized life, living in a clutter-free environment, and having improved focus, goal-setting skills, and lower stress.
This, in turn, helps us to feel more relaxed and can even help us to sleep better.
The poll found that people living with romantic partners are more likely to make their beds in the morning and also those who live in Northeast and Southern US states.
According to the National Sleep Foundation's Bedroom Poll, around 70% of Americans make their bed each morning.
Older people who keep a tidy environment are more likely to experience a higher quality of life than those who don’t.
This was found by simply putting someone in a messy room or a clean room. The clean-room group thinks better logically and structurally whereas the people in the messy room are more creative.
People who live in the opposite fashion, such as extreme hoarders, are much more likely to be more stressed and have lower emotional regulation.
With all of this said, there are also some negative effects of making your bed, though the positives undoubtedly outweigh them. One is that making your bed might be less hygienic (because an unmade bed gets more air).
People who make their bed are more likely to value tradition and convention and, in a sense, these are both enemies of creativity.
Sources: (Verywell Mind)(The Spruce)
Gretchen Rubin, author of ‘The Happiness Project,’ claims that learning to make our beds each morning was one of the most impactful acts regarding our happiness.
If the first thing that we do in the morning is to be shoddy, rushed, or skipped completely, then it sets up our mentality for the day to excuse ourselves to act this way with our other tasks, too.
Admiral William McRaven said, “If you make your bed every morning you will have accomplished the first task of the day. It will give you a small sense of pride and it will encourage you to do another task and another and another.”
By making your bed, which produces a tiny sense of accomplishment, we tend to carry this focus through the day. When the same diligence is paid to our tasks, we keep calm and organized.
Duhigg doesn’t only claim that this gives us a better sense of well-being, but also that it affects our ability to budget positively.
There are two types of people in this world: people who make their beds and people who don’t.
It’s amongst one of the first things people are taught to do at military school or in scouts, and it's something most parents nag their kids to do. Making your bed can become an easy habit, but it's one which has knock-on effects on the rest of our lives regarding our mental health and much more.
To discover more, click through the gallery.
Disorganization negatively impacts our ability to focus and can therefore affect our relationships in how we communicate with other people.
Why starting your day by making your bed really matters
The benefits of starting your day with intention
HEALTH Routine
There are two types of people in this world: people who make their beds and people who don’t.
It’s amongst one of the first things people are taught to do at military school or in scouts, and it's something most parents nag their kids to do. Making your bed can become an easy habit, but it's one which has knock-on effects on the rest of our lives regarding our mental health and much more.
To discover more, click through the gallery.