Making Your Bed is the Keystone Habit for Having a Positive Day

Lift’s Habit of the Day: Make Bed

Did you know that a small habit like making your bed can help you get through life’s rough patches?

One Lift user, Dave, told us last week that making his bed daily helped him recover from a divorce:

I’m 30 years old and have been going through a particularly ugly divorce (I suppose they’re all ugly). When I felt like my life was completely out of control, I discovered Lift. I set out to make my bed and floss every single morning. I’ve managed to do both of these things for 100 days in a row, and in the process develop the habit of starting my day on a positive note. It also helped me regain some control in my life, no matter how small.

How could a simple, one minute task like making a bed have had such a profound effect on Dave’s life? It’s his keystone habit.

Keystone habits create positive momentum that increases your ability to achieve other goals

In The Power of Habit, author Charles Duhigg explains the unique power of keystone habits and specifically, making your bed:

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 tidy bed causes better grades or less frivolous spending. But somehow those initial shifts start chain reactions that help other good habits take hold. (Duhigg)

Making your bed is an especially great keystone habit because it’s easy to build into your existing routines. It takes just a minute or two to make your bed. Most people know how to do it; otherwise it’s easy to learn. The immediate visual reward of seeing a made bed reinforces the habit. Plus the task fits seamlessly into your morning routine.

That brings us to one more reason that making your bed is such an effective keystone habit: since you do it in the morning, you’ll feel the positive effects all day long.

Small wins give you confidence that lasts all day long

How to start building this habit:

Right Now: Add the Make Bed habit on Lift. Set up a Lift reminder for just after you wake up or put a post-it note on your mirror/phone/door if you’ll be too groggy to check notifications in the AM.

Then: Make your bed tomorrow morning! If you need tips, this article is full of them including how to make your bed while you’re still in it.