#89 What is body doubling?

and can working with other people help with ADHD?

Author

Dr. Dan Smith
July 26, 2024

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Your faithful writer,
Dr. Daniel Smith

Happy Friday!

Welcome to my new readers Kalie and Sylvie. It was a pleasure to meet you both and I will come back for another slice in the future. 🍕

Today’s newsletter is short and sweet. It covers an idea that I just read about for the first time: body doubling.

Body doubling is something that people with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) do to help them focus.

The basic idea is that sitting with someone else — virtually or in-person — while you are trying to do a difficult task can help you to focus and avoid procrastination.

ADHD expert Dr. Edward Hallowell explained:

“People with ADHD find body doubling unusually helpful because we — I have the condition myself — we respond magically to the presence of another person…

Just having another person nearby activates a kind of attention, imagination, creativity, that is dormant when we're all by ourselves, usually.”

Having someone with you can help you stay accountable instead of doing one of the following things:

  • “Let me watch this video then I’ll start working.”

  • “I’ll do the dishes and then work on the big work project I’ve been dreading.”

  • *scrolling through social media instead of taking care of responsibilities*

Some people will post ‘Study with me’ videos on YouTube as a form of digital body doubling.

ADHD expert Edward Halloway explained that digital body doubling can be an effective way of dealing with the negative effects of excessive phone and social media use:

“We live in an age of loneliness…

It's so paradoxical because we're connected electronically like never before, but we've been disconnecting interpersonally.

If you create yourself an audience [with a ‘Study with Me’ video], even though it's invisible and online, that makes you feel less lonely. That's very energizing.”

As someone with ADHD, I am really interested by this idea. I feel that I am far more productive when I am working with people than I am when I’m alone.

I see ADHD as a double-edged sword: I am driven by my curiosity, but it also drives me insane. I get pulled down rabbit holes and can lose track of the tasks I was meant to accomplish. Then I get stressed and feel guilty about it. I’m sure some of my readers know that feeling.

At the same time, I don’t think the Daily Concept would be possible if I didn’t have ADHD. I love learning about new topics and sharing them with people, and I’ve been very self-motivated to write these newsletters over the last year for that reason.

For all of my adult life I have struggled to manage my ADHD symptoms. In some ways it has made my life harder. At the same time, it has made me who I am!

I’ve found that it’s important to put systems in place to manage myself. Body doubling seems like it could be a good way to help with that.

Fortunately, I have a twin brother. Hard to think of a better body double than that.

Have a great weekend, folks.

ART OF THE DAY

Death and the Maiden by Marianne Stokes. 1908.

Thank you for reading. Please reply to this email if you have any thoughts or feedback.

Yours,
Dan