We all love things that make us more productive, right? Whether it be our favorite way to start our morning before work, our routine breaks to refresh our minds, or something else, many of us have that special way to keep us going.
But what if your "strategy" wasn't something you even had to think about? What if you just had to sit in the same room as someone and you'd be more productive? What if it was just you and another person, sitting in the same room, not talking, but both working, and all of sudden you're able to do all the things you couldn't do before? This is called "body doubling."
How Does Body Doubling Work?
I've already explained a bit of it, but there's actually many ways to body double. Essentially, it works like this:
When you're in the same room as someone else—be it a friend or a family member—you feel like you can't leave the room without it being rude, right? They may anchor you to that room, just by being present. So if you're both in the same room, it forces you to stay in that one room. And you're stuck in that room, but you have nothing to do with your hands, so maybe you clean a few things and then a few more things. And then all of a sudden you realize that half an hour has passed and you have the whole counter organized.
This is body doubling in a nutshell. Generally, there's two people, one simply acting as the anchor for the other, and they might say nothing at all, but they're keeping you in the room. You can anchor each other and help both members out in terms of doubling, or it can only be for one person's benefit. It ultimately depends on who's doing it and if body doubling works for them.
I've done this on calls with someone first, but your range of motion is a little bit less. You have to stay within range of the camera or the mic, which limits you to a smaller space than just a room. (The issue is, if you're using a phone or something, you can just get up and carry them away, thereby ruining the "anchor" idea.)
Either way, the person doubling with you anchors you to a general area, and for those of us who can't just sit still, we end up reaching for the things around us to occupy our hands. Sometimes we'll end up cleaning, other times we'll work on reading a book while the other person isn't talking to us, maybe we'll do homework, maybe we'll do a project that we meant to do a while ago but couldn't sit still long enough to do. Body doubling increases productivity for many people, even though it requires nothing more than another person being present.
I've Never Body Doubled. Would It Help Me?
One important thing to note is that I said, "body doubling increases productivity for many people," the key word being "many." I've never heard of a neurotypical body doubling, and while that certainly doesn't mean they can't, it tends to be a neurodivergent thing to do. In particular, it's something that those with ADD/ADHD specialize in. People who usually can't sit still for any amount of time may end up in the same chair for hours when they're body doubling with someone, focusing so intently on their work after a while that they can forget to eat, drink, or go to the bathroom.
Of course, this extreme isn't necessarily "healthy," but it can be remedied once you stop focusing so deeply.
But suffice it to say that body doubling can be helpful to many people, but it's not necessarily helpful for all people.
If It Doesn't Help Me, Why Should I Do It?
Maybe it won't help you, but if you have a neurodivergent friend and wonder why they're asking to work with you when you know they're capable of doing the work alone, it's not just that they want to get distracted talking to you. When we focus to try to work, it can take a lot of energy. Oftentimes, we may have to struggle to focus just a little bit, and for those who benefit from body doubling, it requires less energy to try to focus when body doubling, because you already have that initial "grounding" that you can work with. For neurotypicals who have neurodivergent friends, body doubling can still be an important thing to know about because they can do their work while also helping their friends do their work (where and when it's appropriate, of course).