What do you really want out of life? Most of us just want to enjoy it. That means spending as much time living your life (doing all the things you love) and as little time sustaining your life (doing the boring things) as possible. I discussed the three circles in which we spend time here. The third circle we spend time in is building, which is creating things that increase the amount or quality of time we spend living in the future.
You probably have a long list of things you want to build. You may want to build a successful business, a great childhood for your kids, or a wonderful relationship with your spouse. You may want to create a better life for battered women or disadvantaged children. Whatever it is, it's very important.
The ingredients for the things you build are resources. Wikipedia defines resources as "a source or supply from which benefit is produced." Wikipedia goes on to say that "resources typically are materials, money, services, staff or other assets that are transformed to produce a benefit and in the process may be consumed or made unavailable."
The resources you use to build things are your skills, money, time, or anything you might need in order to build that thing. In the process, these resources get consumed. That includes the most precious resource you have: time.
You can get more help, more ink pens, more chocolate, more friends, and more money, but you can never get more time. Time is the great equalizer. You, me, Oprah, Donald Trump, the Dahlia Lama, Abraham Lincoln, and your mom all have (or had) the same 24 hours in each day. The amount and quality of time you spend living is directly determined by how you use your 24 hours.
Every second you spend doing one thing is a second you can't spend doing something else. Does making the bed give you a more loving relationship with your spouse? Does making the bed make your business more successful? Does making the bed help your kids become better human beings? Does making your bed improve the lives of those who you want to help? If you're creative enough, you can say yes to any of those questions, but add to the end of the question, "more than anything else I could do right now?"
You can't ever get more time. Spend it wisely. As you do everything you do today, ask yourself why you are doing it.