make your bed.

My mom recently shared with me an article from Reader's Digest that was surprisingly convicting.  It comments on one of the day's simplest tasks: making your bed.  Is it really all that important?  I know for me it's definitely a hit or miss chore.  But after reading this, I plan to take that menial task more seriously. 

"At the risk of sounding childish or lazy (maybe both?), I'll just be honest: I hate making my bed.  Rather, I used to hate making my bed.  Why should I bother? I reasoned.  I'm just going to get right back into it later, and no one except my immediate family will see it (and, as it turns out, they are stuck with me and all my covers-tossed-in-disarray).  

But something I read last week in Charles Duhigg's The Power of Habit changed my mind.  According to Duhigg, making your bed every morning is correlated with better productivity and stronger skills at sticking to a budget.  It also boosts happiness.  My interest was piqued.  Happiness?  Yes, I'll take it.  Productivity?  Yep, I'll take that too.  Sticking to a budget?  Sounds good to me. ...

Apparently, making your bed (and other feel-good tasks like exercising and cooking your own food) is a keystone habit: a routine that, if you can identify it, spills over to others.  According to Duhigg, changing or cultivating keystone habits 'helps other habits to flourish by creating new structures, and they establish cultures where change becomes contagious.'  A keystone habit is essentially a catalyst for other good behaviors.

So far I've made my bed for ten days in a row.  And here's what I've noticed: Making my bed inspires me to get my kids to make their beds.  Which inspires me to do the laundry and the dishes and to pick up abandoned stuffed animals, dropped underwear (theirs! not mine), and newspapers-turned-light-sabers as I corral my two toddlers out the door to school.  I look at my watch to see that it is 8 a.m., and the house is an unusual shade of clean before coffee.

...When I leave my bed in a heap, I leave the bedroom feeling defeated by my bed, my alarm clock, and my general sleepy mood.  I'm groggy and reluctant to get the day started.  My internal voice sounds a bit like the strewn covers: 'Noooooo, morning!  Go awaaaaaay!'

But when I look at my freshly made bed, I have to admit it: I smile a little.  I feel just a bit more motivated.  Productive, even.  I leave the room saying, 'Goodbye beautiful little den of tranquility that I have created with my bare hands!'  And I'm ready to tackle the day--crush it, even...."

(Read the rest of the article by Jackie Ashton here.)

So what do we think?  Are we inspired?

xx,

R + baby

P.S. If that didn't inspire you this most certainly will.