ADHD and the importance of making your bed
Image: Skyler Gerald via Unsplash
Why building better habits
unlocks an ADHD life you enjoy more
On 17th May 2014, Admiral William McRaven of the United States Navy stood before eight thousand graduating students at the University of Texas.
He was there to deliver that year’s commencement address – a reflection on the life lessons he’d gained while training to become a Navy SEAL.
The speech would go on to earn its place among the greatest of our time. But what’s more important here is its unwitting relevance to managing ADHD – a relevance that’s as notable now as it was eleven years ago.
Every morning, the admiral reflected, the instructors would show up in his barracks room and inspect how well (or not) each bed had been made.
Recruits were required to carry out this task to perfection. Which to them seemed “a little ridiculous at the time”.
But the wisdom of this simple act, the admiral explained, had since been proven to him many times over.
“If you make your bed first thing in the morning, you will have accomplished the first task of the day,” he explained.
“It will give you a small sense of pride, and it will encourage you to do another task and another and another.
“By the end of the day, that one task completed will have turned into many tasks completed.”
And so the first of the admiral’s life lessons had been landed.
To many an ADHDer, starting the day with a positive habit can have a staggeringly positive effect.
Our minds are emotional machines. They thrive on feel-good achievement, and that sense of forward propulsion that proves another day hasn’t fallen to the old enemy, procrastination.
Good habits – the right habits – keep us on track. They focus the mind. Save us from throwing away time in favour of something mindless.
And when we start the day right, we can so often activate a chain reaction of these remarkable little wins – which, together, take the ensuing hours in the kind of direction we feel REALLY good about.
In fact, it’s no exaggeration to say that the formation of the right habits is the key to managing ADHD – the silver bullet that has the potential to help us become the person we want to be.
There are those out there claiming this isn’t possible. That habits simply don’t stick with ADHD folk.
But it’s an opinion you can disregard.
Habits are formed through repetition. And thanks partly to the interest-based nervous system (come back for more on that) driving the ADHD mind, that repetition absolutely can happen – so long as you can find the habits that are right for you.
I know this because I’ve worked with over a hundred ADHDers – helping them identify and adopt the behaviours that have built into the habits that have made a real difference in their lives.
“If you want to change the world,” Admiral McRaven said, “start off by making your bed”.
That could be truer for you than you ever imagined.
Copyright © Kevin Exley 2025
You should not regard the information contained in this article/post as being, or as a replacement for, professional medical advice or treatment. The words contained herein represent the thoughts and opinions of the author, who is not clinically or medically trained.