Do you make your bed? I think the answer for most people is probably no. At best you might throw the covers back on to messily cover the mattress and pillow, but that probably is the extent of any making that is done. In Japan, many people use futons instead of mattresses, so we are somewhat forced to "make the bed" by folding it up and putting it away, but even in this case, I imagine most people are not neat in this putting away, probably more often than not folding the sheets in with the futon and quickly stuffing the entire thing into the closet or piling it in a corner.

In either case, properly making our bed is something most people don't really consider unless we are kids who have strict parents or are in the military and are forced to make the bed. After all, properly making the bed may take a good ten, fifteen minutes, and that seems like a waste of time. Better to use that extra time to get started on our day, right?

I used to think that too, but when I was in university someone gifted me a Anthony Robbins book. I forget which one; Awaken the Giant Within, maybe. Whatever book it was, I remember in it Robbins mentioned why the military requires recruits to make their bed every morning; he claimed it was to give them an easy win and allow them to start their day with an immediate victory, giving a slight motivation boost that might carry on and positively influence the rest of their day.

I liked that idea and so it always stuck with me, and I carried it to my life. In the States, I always took the extra time to properly make my bed, smoothing out the sheets and tucking them in to make it neat. When I moved to Japan and switched to a futon, I did the same, always removing the sheets every morning and folding them up, then folding up the futon itself, and putting them all neatly away in the closet. (After getting married, my wife insisted we wash the sheets everyday and let the futon hang outside for awhile, so that adds to the work, but if I'm around I usually take charge of these things in the morning while she makes breakfast.)

As silly as it sounds, there is a bit of a feeling of accomplishment to doing it. That's one thing already marked off your daily checklist before even sitting down for breakfast. It may be a tiny mental boost, but it is a boost nonetheless.

A few weeks ago I came across this video. It is from a commencement speech by Navy Seal Admiral William McRaven about the importance of making your bed in the morning. It's a really good clip!

This clip is so good that I transcribed it. Watch the video, but here are his words to also read:

Every morning in SEAL training, my instructors, who at the time were all Vietnam veterans, would show up in my barracks room and the first thing they'd do was inspect my bed.

If you did it right, the corners would be square, the covers would be pulled tight, the pillow centered just under the headboard, and the extra blanket folded neatly at the foot of the rack.

It was a simple task, mundane at best, but every morning we were required to make our bed to perfection.

It seemed a little ridiculous at the time, particularly in light of the fact that we were aspiring to be real warriors, tough battle-hardened SEALs, but the wisdom of this simple act has been proven to me many times over.

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. And 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 the little things in life matter. If you can't do the little things right, you'll never be able to do the big things right.

And 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.

So if you want to change the world, start off by making your bed.

Actually his entire speech is great. It's a fairly long speech, around twenty minutes, but if you have the time, I'd encourage the listen. He is such a good speaker and the speech is so good that that twenty minutes goes quickly; there are so many good points that I could make many more posts from what he talks about.

Anyway, wise words. Like I wrote above, I have been doing this since I first read about it during my university years. I can't say it's led to any great success, but I can say that it's helped me get started on my day instead of procrastinating until coffee time like many people do.

This advice can be abstracted to keeping a clean space—always cleaning your desk at the end of the day so you have a fresh workspace tomorrow, and so on—but even just taken by itself, this can be a great thing to add to your daily routine.

Do you make your bed every morning? If so, do you agree with the idea that it gives you a slight mental boost for the day? If you don't make your bed, why don't you take the good Admiral's advice and start? Worth a try for a few days at least.

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Misc: Title photo made by me from this image by JK K on Pixabay.

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David LaSpina is an American photographer and translator lost in Japan, trying to capture the beauty of this country one photo at a time and searching for the perfect haiku. He blogs here and at laspina.org. Write him on Twitter or Mastodon.