Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Good Morning. This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Speaker 1: Today's tip is about that age old question of whether
Speaker 1: an orderly environment makes people more productive. Is it worth
Speaker 1: it to make your bed in the morning, to clean
Speaker 1: your desk before quitting time, to pick up the house
Speaker 1: before bed. I know lots of people feel strongly about this,
Speaker 1: but I think that this has more to do with
Speaker 1: personality than whether there's an objectively correct answer. A few
Speaker 1: years ago, like many people, I listened to Admiral William H.
Speaker 1: Mccraven's commencement speech, telling graduates that if they want to
Speaker 1: change the world, they should start by making their beds.
Speaker 1: The idea is that how we do little things and
Speaker 1: the order we create around us through these little victories
Speaker 1: is what allows us to do big things in the
Speaker 1: long run. Lots of people agree with the admiral. His
Speaker 1: speech has been viewed more than ten million times. I'd
Speaker 1: point out that his speech was actually more about various
Speaker 1: other lessons he learned in his military service. But most
Speaker 1: people are never going to face harsh combat conditions or
Speaker 1: survive special forces training. Everyone, on the other hand, can
Speaker 1: make his or her bed, which is why that's the
Speaker 1: lesson that's often repeated from the speech. So is this
Speaker 1: a wise idea? Is making your bed the first step
Speaker 1: to conquering the world? I know it's a popular idea.
Speaker 1: Magazines devote cover lines to the idea that you can
Speaker 1: clear your clutter and change your life. Marie Condo's life
Speaker 1: changing magic of tidying up became a cultural phenomenon with
Speaker 1: its charge that life begins when you put your house
Speaker 1: in order. But as someone who doesn't make her bed
Speaker 1: every morning, or clean her desk most days, or particularly
Speaker 1: care if the house is cluttered when I go to bed,
Speaker 1: I have to say I'm not sure. I'm not sure
Speaker 1: that spending time creating these signs of outward order is
Speaker 1: the universal cute to success. Instead, I think that some
Speaker 1: people are more bothered by untidiness than others. There are
Speaker 1: neat types and there are let it go types. One
Speaker 1: is not better than the other. There are successful and
Speaker 1: unsuccessful people in both camps. However, since I focus on
Speaker 1: the twenty four hours we all have in a day,
Speaker 1: I do know this, If you can get yourself to
Speaker 1: a place where you are slightly less bothered by a
Speaker 1: lack of visual tidiness, you can save quite a bit
Speaker 1: of time. Here's one way to find out what sort
Speaker 1: of camp you fall in. Does it bother you to
Speaker 1: have a high number of unread messages on your inbox icon?
Speaker 1: I don't get worked up about deleting stuff, and if
Speaker 1: I have no new messages that I haven't dealt with,
Speaker 1: are only a handful. My icon generally says somewhere around
Speaker 1: six six thirty messages. To me, six thirty messages basically
Speaker 1: means zero. It doesn't bother me that it isn't actually zero.
Speaker 1: But when I hell this to some people or they
Speaker 1: see my phone, they say this would drive them crazy.
Speaker 1: They say I should go through and delete all these
Speaker 1: unread messages so it would say zero. But I fail
Speaker 1: to see why this would not change my life in
Speaker 1: any way if my icon six six thirty or it
Speaker 1: says zero. Likewise, no one sees my bed during the day.
Speaker 1: Sometimes I make it and sometimes I don't. I'm not
Speaker 1: more productive on the days that I do make it.
Speaker 1: I don't work near my bed where it would enter
Speaker 1: my world view anyway. As for getting in that bed
Speaker 1: at night, I can fall asleep. Whatever is going on
Speaker 1: on the floor or whatever the bed looks like. I
Speaker 1: just view it as irrelevant, But in my talks and
Speaker 1: workshops on time management, I know that many people feel differently.
Speaker 1: People's time logs will show thirty to sixty minutes cleaning
Speaker 1: up the house before bed, So I ask, why is
Speaker 1: there going to be an eleven pm home inspection? Is
Speaker 1: someone coming around to give demerits for having toys on
Speaker 1: the floor. Well, now there is no eleven pm home
Speaker 1: inspection and no one is giving out to merits. In fact,
Speaker 1: those toys are just going to come out again the
Speaker 1: next morning and you will never get that hour back.
Speaker 1: That might make rational sense, but people tell me they
Speaker 1: simply cannot relax if their house is a mess. And similarly,
Speaker 1: I'm sure that some people would feel incredibly distracted and
Speaker 1: ill at ease by that sixty number on their inbox.
Speaker 1: An unmade bed might make them worry that life is
Speaker 1: falling apart. If that is you, well then you'll need
Speaker 1: to spend time on it, or you can find someone
Speaker 1: else who will, whether voluntarily or for pay. But there
Speaker 1: might still be ways to save time. For instance, if
Speaker 1: you really need a neatly made bed, don't have an
Speaker 1: elaborate bed, one sheet, one comforter, and only as many
Speaker 1: pillows as you and any bedmates need for sleeping. Arranging
Speaker 1: a dozen throw pillows is the way of madness. Turn
Speaker 1: the bed making process into a thirty second ordeal Max.
Speaker 1: And if you really can't relax, if there's a mess
Speaker 1: in the house, I suggest this clean one room, shut
Speaker 1: the door, and sitting there freeze up all kinds of time.
Speaker 1: Do you make your bet each day? Are you in
Speaker 1: the neat camp or the let it go camp? You
Speaker 1: can let me know at Before Breakfast podcast at I
Speaker 1: heeart media dot com. In the meantime, this is Laura.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening, and here's to making the most of
Speaker 1: our time. Hey, everybody, I'd love to hear from you.
Speaker 1: You can send me your tips, your questions, or anything else.
Speaker 1: Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at
Speaker 1: Before Breakfast pod that's b E the number four then
Speaker 1: Breakfast p o D. You can also shoot me an
Speaker 1: email at Before Breakfast podcast at iHeart media dot com.
Speaker 1: That Before Breakfast is spelled out with all the letters.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much, I look forward to staying in touch.
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