I learned the value of body-doubling before I knew I had ADHD

Photo by Vardan Papikyan on Unsplash.

A couple years ago, I wrote a blog post recommending body doubling to everyone, including neurotypical people.

I’d lost steam halfway through a project, and needed help to get back on track. Fortunately, I already had a recurring meeting with a friend who used body doubling to manage her ADHD. We both joined a virtual meeting, quickly discussed what we each intended to work on, then went on mute and worked in parallel for two hours.

I was struck by how helpful it was to have dedicated time twice a week to make progress on my project. And the gentle social pressure of telling my friend what I was working on gave me an accountability boost. 

In my blog post, I reflected on how well body doubling worked, even for someone like me who doesn’t have ADHD! 

Spoiler: Turns out I do have ADHD. 

I get a chuckle out of re-reading that blog post. And while I am still adamant that body-doubling can be helpful for neurotypicals, too, my experience was yet another example of how I’d learned to accommodate myself without having the language to describe my need.

Thinking back, I’ve used body doubling all throughout my career. I was the person who preferred studying in the library or student centre rather than in my room. I was also the person who booked “working meetings” with colleagues so that we could power through our respective to-do lists. And I’ve done coworking at the library or now at Builders Club because exclusively working alone at home is a recipe for distraction.

Recognizing this pattern and connecting it to ADHD gives me a more specific understanding of why body doubling is such an effective tool for me. And I can more easily recognize when it’s time to deploy it. 

You don't need an accommodation policy or a diagnosis to make body doubling normal at work. You just need to stop treating "working alone in silence" as the only legitimate way to focus.

Have you ever used body doubling - before or after knowing what it was called?