Making your bed as a tiny act that creates momentum

Creative Highlight - Blake Cheek

Did you make your bed this morning?

It seems like such an insignificant thing. Pull up the sheets. Straighten the pillows. Maybe throw a blanket across the end. Done.

But apparently, that one accomplishment at the beginning of your day can have more of an impact on the rest of our day than we realize.

Making your bed means that before you’ve really even started the day, you’ve already completed something.

And then this got me thinking about something else.

Your bed isn't only where you begin your day. It's also where you come back to finish it. Imagine, there’s something really beautiful about that.

You leave it behind in the morning and go live an entire day. You work. You make choices. Experience life - whatever that means and brings. Check and send emails. You take care of people. Take care of yourself. “Solution-ize”. Get distracted. Maybe you accomplish everything you wanted to, or maybe the day gets completely away from you.

And then, 16 hours later, you come back to this little reminder of where you started. Your made bed… or maybe your unmade bed… Is there a feeling that changes there? A difference in a made one vs an unmade one?

When coming back to your made bed, you have proof that before any of the rest of the day happened, you did one small thing for yourself.

Studies around our environments and routines have connected more organized spaces with things like reduced stress, better habits, and an increased sense of control. Making the bed isn't going to magically make someone successful but I can understand why the habit shows up so often in conversations about productivity.

It's not really about the bed. It's about momentum. One completed task makes the next one feel a little easier.

There’s a little reward that comes from accomplishing something, and our brains naturally respond to rewarding experiences. Maybe that's part of why checking something off can make us want to keep going?

Here before me in the morning: a fresh start.

Here waiting for me at night: an almost reminiscent reminder of where I was just 16 hours earlier.

And tomorrow? The gift of begin again. Which gives me the realization I came to so recently. If I didn’t do things the way I wanted to today, I have an opportunity to begin again tomorrow…

Maybe changing the flow of our entire day doesn't always require some massive life overhaul.

Maybe sometimes it starts by pulling up the sheets. And if you’re like me, forget the top sheet, shake that comforter out, and call it day!