What if I told you that the simple act of making your bed each morning can help you start the day with a boom setting a perfect scene for success.
Your parents were really onto something when they spent hours nagging you to make the bed. Recent books, surveys, and studies suggest a very strong link between the act of early morning bed-making and increased productivity.
Fun Fact about Adrienne
Did you know that I come from a long line of Dry Cleaners? My grandparents on both sides of my family were in the laundry, dry cleaning, and uniform rental business. My mom’s family was in the linen rental and my dad’s parents were in the uniform rental. It was a match to be because My Mom and Dad met at a Dry-Cleaning convention in Acapulco!
So, before we were even in middle school my brother and I was folding rags at the “store” for allowance money, and we absolutely knew that we needed to make our beds before leaving the house!
5 Reasons Why it’s Important to Make your Bed
You know all the excuses you have used!
· “I don’t have time.”
· “No one is going to see it anyway.”
· “It’s not important.”
· “I live alone so it doesn’t matter”
· “I’m too tired to make my bed in the morning”
Excuses are easy, but when it comes right down to it, it's also easy to make your bed each morning.
But a quick fluff of the pillows and tug of the sheets and comforter takes only seconds, and it is the easiest way to make your entire bedroom look better instantly. Beyond that, however, there are some surprising benefits to making your bed each day.
Fun Fact about Good Habits
Your bed-making habits reveal a lot about your personality. The lives of those who tidy completely and thoroughly are without exception dramatically altered.
1.) It Starts Your Day Off Right
It might be a small accomplishment, but making the bed sets the tone for the entire day. Perhaps no one has extolled this
virtue of making the bed each morning as well as Naval Admiral William McRaven, the commander of U.S. Special Operations. In a 2014 commencement speech at the University of Texas at Austin, Admiral McRaven shared his thoughts on the matter.
“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," he said. "By the end of the day, that one task completed will have turned into many tasks completed. Making your bed will also reinforce the fact that little things in life matter.”
These are powerful words, and you don't have to be able to bounce a coin off your taut sheets to benefit from them.
Fun Fact about Good Habits
Making your bed in the morning is one such productive habit that improves your decision-making ability.
2.) It Encourages You to Keep the Rest of Your Room Tidy
Even the most beautiful and organized bedroom looks less tidy with an unmade bed, and the opposite is also true. When the bed is made, it helps the rest of the room look styled, even if it's not perfect. Better still, once you are in the habit of making your bed, you’ll likely feel inspired to improve the appearance of your bedroom in other ways, even if very small. From tiny beginnings, great things grow. Maybe next, you'll tackle the closet.
Feng Shui Bedroom Tip
Your bedroom should represent the 3 Rs in Feng Shui. Rest, Relaxation, and Romance. Keep all work-related items out of the bedroom. Electronics, workout equipment, and even your cell phone!
3.) It Leads to Better Productivity, Setting the Tone for the Day
The primary reason why making a bed in the morning is an essential duty is; that it sets the tone of the day. As it is the first accomplished work you do after waking up, it helps you set positive thinking that you have completed your first job of the day with utmost satisfaction. So, therefore you need to make your bed every day.
People who make their bed early in the morning develop a greater sense of well-being. This is because; tidying a bed is related to your personal health. The tidier your bed is, the healthier you would be. And being healthy, no doubt will offer you more productivity. You will not get ill and can utilize more of your time doing work.
Fun Fact about Adrienne
The movie, Shawshank Redemption was filmed at The Ohio State Reformatory, in Mansfield, Ohio, in 1994. However, the laundry scenes were filmed at my grandfather’s laundry “plant”. The old equipment, industrial washer, and dryers you see in the film were my grandfathers. He had to shut down business for a few days, for filming.
4.) It Lowers Your Stress and Improves Your Mood
You spend roughly a third of your life in your bedroom, and the appearance of your room affects your mood. It’s hard to feel calm, relaxed, competent and grounded when you are surrounded by disorganization. A properly made bed (no, it doesn’t have to be up to military standards, just neat and unrumpled) instantly makes the entire room look pulled together, creating a subtle vibe of tranquility and competence. A made bed shows that you care about yourself and your home, and that feeling of being cared for helps lift your mood and lighten your emotional burdens.
Tips
Here are three quick tips to make your bed like a Thatcher:
Keep sheets wrinkle-free by putting them on your bed right out of the dryer.
Smooth the sheets with your hands as you put them on the bed.
Fold and tuck sheets neatly in at the two bottom mattress corners.
5.) It Just Looks and Feels Better
Think of what it's like to walk into a hotel room. The first thing that catches your eye is a neatly made bed that
practically begs you to slide between soft sheets. Now imagine that same hotel room, but with an unmade, rumpled bed. You'd probably recoil and call housekeeping right away. Would you still want to slide between those sheets? Probably not.
Or, imagine your soul mate showing up that day standing in your bedroom. What would they think? How does your bedroom feel, look? Would your soulmate feel comfortable or embarrassed?
There’s just something about a made bed that feels better at the end of a long day, partly because it makes the bed look cleaner. (Even if you haven’t changed your sheets in weeks), and partly because when a bed looks good, it also feels good. Few things match the pure pleasure of climbing into a smoothly made bed with a lightly plumped pillow after a hectic day.
So, take those couple of minutes each morning to make your bed. It just might improve your entire life!
Fun Fact
The fitted sheet was granted a patent in 1959 to Bertha Berman who invented the concept because she didn't like messy sheets falling off the mattress.
6.) It offers you better sleep
No doubt, sleep is an essential requirement of every individual. And when you get a complete sleep cycle, you feel more active and refreshed throughout the day. So, this, as a result, offers you better productivity. You will feel active everywhere you go. Whether it is a workplace or home, you complete your work with maximum potential. So, if you want better sleep for more productivity, you must make your bed every morning.
So here you are my friends. This is how you can improve your productivity by practicing this success habit. However, there are many other success habits, as well. But the one that you start your day with is making the bed. So, you need to practice the habit of making the bed every morning!
Love,
Adrienne