Second Cup: Should you make your bed?

Sometimes order matters, but sometimes good enough is good enough

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.
Good Morning. This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Today's tip is about that age old question of whether
an orderly environment makes people more productive. Is it worth
it to make your bed in the morning, to clean

(00:24):
your desk before quitting time, to pick up the house
before bed. I know lots of people feel strongly about this,
but I think that this has more to do with
personality than whether there's an objectively correct answer. A few
years ago, like many people, I listened to Admiral William H.
Mccraven's commencement speech, telling graduates that if they want to

(00:44):
change the world, they should start by making their beds.
The idea is that how we do little things and
the order we create around us through these little victories
is what allows us to do big things in the
long run. Lots of people agree with the admiral. His
speech has been viewed more than ten million times. I'd
point out that his speech was actually more about various

(01:05):
other lessons he learned in his military service. But most
people are never going to face harsh combat conditions or
survive special forces training. Everyone, on the other hand, can
make his or her bed, which is why that's the
lesson that's often repeated from the speech. So is this
a wise idea? Is making your bed the first step
to conquering the world? I know it's a popular idea.

(01:28):
Magazines devote cover lines to the idea that you can
clear your clutter and change your life. Marie Condo's life
changing magic of tidying up became a cultural phenomenon with
its charge that life begins when you put your house
in order. But as someone who doesn't make her bed
every morning, or clean her desk most days, or particularly

(01:48):
care if the house is cluttered when I go to bed,
I have to say I'm not sure. I'm not sure
that spending time creating these signs of outward order is
the universal cute to success. Instead, I think that some
people are more bothered by untidiness than others. There are
neat types and there are let it go types. One

(02:10):
is not better than the other. There are successful and
unsuccessful people in both camps. However, since I focus on
the twenty four hours we all have in a day,
I do know this, If you can get yourself to
a place where you are slightly less bothered by a
lack of visual tidiness, you can save quite a bit
of time. Here's one way to find out what sort

(02:32):
of camp you fall in. Does it bother you to
have a high number of unread messages on your inbox icon?
I don't get worked up about deleting stuff, and if
I have no new messages that I haven't dealt with,
are only a handful. My icon generally says somewhere around
six six thirty messages. To me, six thirty messages basically

(02:54):
means zero. It doesn't bother me that it isn't actually zero.
But when I hell this to some people or they
see my phone, they say this would drive them crazy.
They say I should go through and delete all these
unread messages so it would say zero. But I fail
to see why this would not change my life in
any way if my icon six six thirty or it

(03:15):
says zero. Likewise, no one sees my bed during the day.
Sometimes I make it and sometimes I don't. I'm not
more productive on the days that I do make it.
I don't work near my bed where it would enter
my world view anyway. As for getting in that bed
at night, I can fall asleep. Whatever is going on
on the floor or whatever the bed looks like. I
just view it as irrelevant, But in my talks and

(03:38):
workshops on time management, I know that many people feel differently.
People's time logs will show thirty to sixty minutes cleaning
up the house before bed, So I ask, why is
there going to be an eleven pm home inspection? Is
someone coming around to give demerits for having toys on
the floor. Well, now there is no eleven pm home
inspection and no one is giving out to merits. In fact,

(04:02):
those toys are just going to come out again the
next morning and you will never get that hour back.
That might make rational sense, but people tell me they
simply cannot relax if their house is a mess. And similarly,
I'm sure that some people would feel incredibly distracted and
ill at ease by that sixty number on their inbox.
An unmade bed might make them worry that life is

(04:24):
falling apart. If that is you, well then you'll need
to spend time on it, or you can find someone
else who will, whether voluntarily or for pay. But there
might still be ways to save time. For instance, if
you really need a neatly made bed, don't have an
elaborate bed, one sheet, one comforter, and only as many

(04:45):
pillows as you and any bedmates need for sleeping. Arranging
a dozen throw pillows is the way of madness. Turn
the bed making process into a thirty second ordeal Max.
And if you really can't relax, if there's a mess
in the house, I suggest this clean one room, shut
the door, and sitting there freeze up all kinds of time.

(05:07):
Do you make your bet each day? Are you in
the neat camp or the let it go camp? You
can let me know at Before Breakfast podcast at I
heeart media dot com. In the meantime, this is Laura.
Thanks for listening, and here's to making the most of
our time. Hey, everybody, I'd love to hear from you.

(05:31):
You can send me your tips, your questions, or anything else.
Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at
Before Breakfast pod that's b E the number four then
Breakfast p o D. You can also shoot me an
email at Before Breakfast podcast at iHeart media dot com.
That Before Breakfast is spelled out with all the letters.

(05:54):
Thanks so much, I look forward to staying in touch.
Before Breakfast is a production of I Heart Radio. For
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