Take two minutes to make your bed first thing in the morning. It will change your life.

Before I turned this small household chore into a daily routine, I would haphazardly shuffle the comforter around and punch a pillow or two. But now I eagerly (yes, with anticipation) look forward to folding, tucking, and fluffing our high-quality sheets into a bed resembling something from a luxury suite at the Shangri-La or another five-star hotel in Paris.

I have the military backing me up on this. US Navy Admiral William H. McCraven wrote a bestselling book about it — Make Your Bed: Little Things That Can Change Your Life...and Maybe the World. The Admiral insists that the habit of making the bed is one of the most important lessons he learned as a Navy SEAL.

A study in bed making – Mandarin Oriental Paris

"If you make your bed every morning, you will have accomplished the first task of the day," he wrote. "It will give you a small sense of pride, and it will encourage you to do another task, and another, and another. And by the end of the day that one task completed will have turned into many tasks completed."

Back on shore, with the bed made my room looks neater and more pleasing and I feel sunnier. So when it's time to get dressed every outfit I try on somehow looks better. With order, comes beauty. As I move into the bathroom and finish my morning routine I might grab the all-natural cleaner tucked underneath the sink to spritz and wipe the countertop, achieving yet another pleasing point of pride.

Order and beauty at hotel La Réserve.

In our Swinging 6ixties we want to cultivate habits that will carry us to the next decade. Every morning is another opportunity to make your bed, to get dressed in an outfit that reflects your best self, and to move into the day with confidence and purpose.

A stopwatch doesn't lie. It took two minutes flat to completely wrangle our king-size bedding and a mountain of feather pillows into another diurnal masterpiece. I timed it.

The bed in my favourite room at the affordable Paris hotel of choice, Hotel Monge.

And so, dear Reader, making your bed is like a game of dominoes. Once your bed is tight and tidy and looking divine you will feel like you've done something big. It will change your day, and perhaps your life.