Make the Bed or Meditate?
On Living and Investing with Intention and Right Effort
Do I make the bed or meditate?
That’s the small but persistent question I face most mornings as I rush to get ready for the day. Time is precious in my life right now—especially in the morning. We’re talking about increments of minutes. A couple of minutes to make the bed. A couple of minutes I could instead put toward meditation.
Lately, I’ve been choosing the meditation.
It’s part of a broader attempt to live more deliberately—to let go of old habits and examine how I actually spend my time.
My wife has noticed. She’s used to coming home each day to an immaculately made bed. Now, the bed is often left unmade. I think she’s a little worried about me.
Meanwhile, I’m probably benefiting from both the time spent meditating and the time not spent making the bed.
Tidiness & the Illusion of Control
I’ve been a neat freak my whole life. Only recently, in my fourth decade, have I started to see that neat-freakery for what it really is: my futile attempt to impose control on an uncontrollable, chaotic, often scary world.
This impulse shows up everywhere. Tidying up. Packing the dishwasher just so. Making sure all the apps on my phone are up-to-date all the time. [I could go on. And on.]
These are deeply ingrained habits—automatic, unquestioned.
But I’ve reached a point where I’m thinking more critically about what I do and why. I’m noticing just how much time and energy I spend trying to manufacture a sense of control.
And I’m realizing that it’s not time particularly well spent.
Sure, it might scratch a small itch of insecurity in the moment. But it doesn’t help much in the long run.
Making the bed doesn’t change the fact that I’m going to die someday. That I’ll lose everything I know and love. So these days, I often leave the bed unmade—much to my wife’s chagrin.
That said, she hasn’t started making it herself either.
Rumpled Sheets & Right Effort
It’s a strange feeling, crawling into an unmade bed at night. But I’m getting used to it. That mild discomfort, settling into rumpled sheets, has become a quiet reminder that I’m trying to live with more intention—doing things because they’re genuinely good for me, not just because they momentarily make me feel in control.
In Buddhism, this distinction matters. The Eightfold Path, the Buddha’s roadmap to inner peace, includes something called Right Effort.
Despite how it sounds, Right Effort isn’t about trying harder or doing more. It’s about learning where effort actually reduces suffering—and where it doesn’t.
Some effort is skillful. Some effort, like compulsively making the bed each morning, is just busywork/distraction/delusion dressed up as responsibility.
Not Making the Bed of My Portfolio
I’ve been bringing this same perspective into my investing.
Over the past year or two, with encouragement from my financial planner, I’ve significantly simplified my portfolio. At first, the process was distressing. It felt like giving up control—even though, if I’m honest, the control I thought I had probably never translated into better returns.
What it did give me was a feeling of being in charge. Of control. The feeling I got from a military-grade made-up bed.
Since switching to an all-in-one ETF, I’ve noticed something unexpected: I think about my investments far less—and paradoxically, I think about investing more.
I get ideas for posts like this one. And more importantly, I seem to have more time and mental space to actually write them.
All because I consciously decided to stop “making the bed” of my portfolio every day.
These days, I check my brokerage account less often. I trade far less. I leave rebalancing to Vanguard. They’re better at it than I am.
And the time and energy I’ve saved? I try to put it toward things that genuinely bring me joy and peace—writing this Substack, meditating, being present in the middle of a mad morning.
The world is crazy. That’s not something we can change.
But we can acknowledge the craziness along with the finitude and impermanence of our lives. And we can choose to live as intentionally—with Right Effort—as we’re able.
Even if that means leaving the bed unmade.
- The Buddh-ish Investor
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Take home points:
Not all effort is skillful. Some of our daily habits—from making the bed to managing investments—are attempts to feel in control, even when that effort doesn’t meaningfully reduce suffering.
Right Effort means letting go of unhelpful striving and living with intention. Choosing meditation over tidying, or simplicity over constant portfolio tinkering, can free up time, attention, and peace of mind.
If you’re looking for more:
More Buddh-ish musings on neat-freakery: