Hiring Wisdom: Ask Your Interviews – Did You Make Your Bed This Morning?

Believe it or not, this post’s title actually makes a worthwhile interview question.

Last year, Navy Adm. William H. McRaven — the man who commanded the SEAL team that hunted for Osama bin Laden — gave University of Texas graduates some unusual advice during his commencement speech: “If you want to change the world, start by making your bed.”

Here are his six reasons why:

It helps you start the day off right. Completing the simple chore of making your bed can be the start of a productive day.
Happy people make their beds. In a survey of 68,000 people by Hunch.com, 71 percent of bed-makers consider themselves to behappy people while 62 percent of non-bed-makers say they’re unhappy.
You’ll sleep better. A National Sleep Foundation survey found that people who make their beds every day or almost every day were 19 percent more likely to report getting a good night’s sleep than those who don’t make their beds.
It helps establish good habits. In his book, The Power of Habit, Charles Duhigg writes, “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 can reduce stress. Living in a cluttered, messy space causes stress, which is why Marie Kondo, best-selling author of The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, makes the argument that keeping your physical space in order can help you put your mental space in order as well.
It just feels good. Sleeping in a freshly made bed tops the list of things that make us feel good, according to a survey of 2,000 people by Bupa.

This was originally published on Mel Kleiman’s Humetrics blog.