Exercising and Bed-Making: The Effect of Activity upon Awakening on Later Goal Achievement

Admiral William McRaven’s best-selling book Make your Bed contends early activity (in this case bed-making) produces more achievement. Our 377-person experiment on bed-making and exercising found little support for this contention. However, immediate bed-makers did report feeling happier (Cohen’s d=1.24), though immediate exercisers did not.