We all need wins in our day. A day without one feels kind of blah at best or like a failure at worst.
If you could guarantee a “win” with a tiny 2-minute practice every day, would you do it? Apparently the majority of adults do NOT think this small habit is good enough to try.
What’s the practice? Make your bed in the morning.
Yes, it’s too simple to seem true. But the deeper psychological benefits are profound.
If you don’t make your bed every morning, and you’re trying to improve any aspect of your life, this post is for you.
Because whether you want to be healthy or wealthy or just overall well, you need to create mini goals and achieve them, and over time, consistency will get you results.
So, this habit is quite literally a 2-minute time commitment. You’re not a luxury hotel, you’re just quickly tidying up the mess you made overnight.
When we aim for consistency, we don’t aim for perfection. We aim for getting it done.
Here’s how your morning might look:
- you wake up
- wash up
- hopefully brush your teeth, another good habit!
- (meanwhile your bed is airing out)
- you have morning water
- you might have breakfast
- you make your bed
- you leave for work…
You see how I slipped that in there? IT’S JUST 2 MINUTES! It can fit anywhere in your morning. If you think it can’t, repeat this saying after me “it just takes 2 minutes”… “it just takes 2 minutes”…
But here’s what happens. You get this subtle checkmark in your brain that “Ah, I finished something.”
I know, I know. You’re thinking “that’s something?“
But, yes it is. It is, because if you don’t start with that tiny something, you start your day with nothing. And “nothing” doesn’t feel good.
The tiny something of making your bed becomes the launching pad for what else you can do that day… the possibilities are endless.
This ritual is actual quite primal. There are things we do as human animals that signal the start and end of a day. When there is no clear beginning and ending, you’re caught in a continuous timeless energy drain.
Creating a mini ritual to start the day – with the setting of your bed – brings an awakening energy.
Entering your room at the end of the day – welcome by cozy clean bed – brings a relaxing energy.
And all it takes it a quick tidying of sheets and fluffing of a comforter. Be thankful you’re not a chimpanzee – they literally make a new bed every night with new branches and leaves!
This psychology is so helpful because your brain starts the day getting a little satisfaction hit and it’s primed for more action.
When you can get a free, easy, quick win in the world of good habits, you should take that. I’m going to guess that if you become the kind of person who makes your bed, you also become the kind of person who will likely eat healthy and exercise consistently.
