One habit that changed my life

One habit that changed my life is… 

Photo by Sonnie Hiles on Unsplash

Making my bed. Yep, that’s right! It might sound silly to you but it has definitely impacted my life emphatically. And anyone who knows me knows that I am very insistent on making the bed every day. 

When I was a kid, I never really understood why my mother always pressured me to make my bed. Even just a few years ago, making the bed didn’t make any sense to me. After all, what good does it do to make the bed? 

Speaking from my own experience, it does so much good!! 

Now, I’m so obsessed with making the bed, that I forced my roommate to do it every morning because I got annoyed every time I looked on her side of the room and discovered an untidy and cluttered bed. (Aargh!!) But, she gradually started doing it every day on her own and now it has become her habit too. (So proud of myself, haha!😎)

Okay, it’s so simple. It just takes like 2 minutes to make the bed and the benefits of it go beyond a good-looking bedroom. 

They say that the simplest things can make big differences. That is exactly what I find with making my bed every single morning. 

Feeling of accomplishment: Making the bed in the morning gives me a sense of accomplishment. Taking only a few minutes of my time each morning ignites a positive tone for the rest of the day. This sense of accomplishment (no matter how big or small) sparks our inner fire to continue achieving. 

Make your bed to lower your stress: Decluttering makes a huge impact on my mental health. By making my bed, I start to declutter my space. Clutter reminds me of how scattered and unorganized I am and it just drags me down. I find a tidy space to be very calming. 

Looks and feels better: There’s just something about a made bed that feels better at the end of a long day. Maybe because it makes the bed look cleaner (…even if you actually haven’t changed your sheets in weeks😛) or because when a bed looks good, it also feels good. Few things match the sheer joy of climbing into a smoothly made bed with a lightly fluffed pillow after a hectic day. 

Leads to other good habits: Once I got in the habit of making my bed every day, I found that other good habits followed naturally. I now kept my clothes off the floor and cleaning became a necessary custom that I welcomed. I craved a little more organization because now I started to appreciate how it made me feel. 

Positive Mindset: We’ve all been there. You have had a very stressful day and all you can think of is to get to your bed and sleep. You get to your room and it’s just how you left it — A BIG MESS! You find clothes everywhere and your bed isn’t made. This drops your mental state even lower. Now think about this — when you enter the room and it’s tidy doesn’t your mood elevates instantly? You look forward to climbing into the crisply made bed. As I said, it literally takes 2 minutes to make your bed. Two minutes every day will leave your mood elevated every night. 

Photo by Shashi Ch on Unsplash

In the book, The Power of Habit, Charles Duhigg explains that: “Making your bed every morning is correlated with better productivity, a greater sense of well-being, and stronger skills at sticking with a budget. It’s not that a family meal or a tidy bed causes better grades or less frivolous spending. But somehow those initial shifts start chain reactions that help other good habits take hold.”

So take those couple of minutes every morning to make your bed!  

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