Body Doubling

The power of working together

I started working with Kai near the end of their first semester of college. Overall, things were great at school. They loved their classes, had a nice group of friends, and were involved with the club ultimate frisbee team. There was just one problem: they had hardly turned in any work that semester and were at risk of ending up on academic probation.

This wasn't entirely surprising to Kai and their parents. They went into the semester eyes wide open about how challenging college would likely be. Kai had been diagnosed with ADHD at age seven, and organization and time management had always been difficult. With the support of tutors, Kai finished high school with an impressive GPA, but they weren't yet ready to manage their workload as independently as college required. To make matters worse, they were attending a progressive liberal arts college in upstate New York known for its flexibility and general lack of structure—unlikely to provide the scaffolding that had historically helped Kai succeed.

So Kai and their parents did their best to prepare for the challenges ahead. Over the summer, Kai's parents helped them connect with the college's disability support office and arranged for a single dorm room: a place where Kai could complete work with minimal distractions. In August, they outfitted the room with an elaborate office setup: an ergonomic chair, an adjustable sitting-standing desk, and a dual monitor desktop. No expense was spared.

But come Thanksgiving, the chair, the desk, and the monitors remained largely unused.

I received a panicked call from Kai's father a few weeks before finals began. They were desperate for someone to help put out the fire before winter break.

The first thing I suggested was that Kai move to the library to do their work. This recommendation seemed unintuitive to Kai and their parents, but, to me, it seemed obvious.

There's a technique called "body doubling" that's well known in ADHD communities. Though it may sound fancy, it really just means working alongside other people who are also working, and it's thought to have positive effects on task initiation, prioritization, focus, sustained effort, and motivation. Many of us, even those without ADHD, can relate to these positive effects. It's why we work out harder in a gym, why we're more productive in an office, why we study better in a group setting.

Though there isn't much research to back it up, anecdotal evidence suggests that body doubling is remarkably effective—at least as helpful as the standard "separate, distraction-free location" recommendation that appears on virtually every neuropsych report as an accommodation for ADHD, despite its own lack of empirical evidence.

Of course not all body doubles are created equal. (My brother, for instance, hums while he works. Can you even imagine?) The trick is finding the right environment with the right level of ambient energy. It may require some shopping around.

Two weeks later, Kai had completed just enough of the missing work to avoid probation. And the expensive ergonomic desk is now the dorm’s most elaborate gaming setup.

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I’m so excited to finally watch this and strongly recommend it to my first year students who seem so interested in Bowen family systems theory!