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The Life-Changing Magic of Body Doubling
How Positive Peer Pressure Can Make You More Productive
Anna Seirian & MJ Mayes
November 07, 2023 • Estimated Reading Time: 5 minutes
Have you ever wondered why it seems so much easier to get something done when you’re sitting at a coffee shop than sitting alone at your desk? Or why your laundry gets folded faster when your friend is on FaceTime?
This is the life-changing magic that is body doubling.
It’s the reason why you’re more likely to go to the gym if you have a gym buddy, or why you get a better study session at the library rather than at home.
The idea is pretty simple: have another person present while you work on a task or a project. Body doubles can be working on their own tasks or simply sitting quietly in the same space as you.
This technique is a dream for overthinkers, procrastinators, neurodivergents, or anyone just having a hard time doing things they need to do.
The positive social pressure overrides your resistance to starting, getting you out of your head and into action.
Why Body Doubling Works
✅ Accountability
Many people with executive dysfunction struggle to stay on track when left to their own devices, but having someone indirectly involved can bring a self-awareness that helps you feel accountable to stay on task.
📉 Reduced Anxiety
For people with anxiety, having someone nearby can provide a sense of security and reassurance, which makes it easier for you to to relax into the task at hand and not overthink everything.
🪞 Mirroring Focus
When you see someone else working diligently, it can serve as a visual cue, reminding you to stay focused and work on your own tasks.
👯♀️ Social Support
Having someone there, even if they're not directly involved in your work, can reduce feelings of isolation during tasks that might otherwise feel lonely or overwhelming.
📆 Structure & Routine
Body doubling can help establish a structured environment, especially for tasks that require concentration and discipline. Knowing that there's a designated time for work can make it easier to get started.
Official research on this technique is sparse, but many ADHD therapists and counselors recommend body doubling with overwhelmingly positive anecdotal evidence. In a recent interview with Apartment Therapy, an Ohio therapist suggests,
Body doubling is a form of externalizing motivation. It keeps a person accountable to a timeline. In addition, body doubling also acts as a sort of reminder system to stay on track. If a person is sitting by another person quietly, they are aware that if they wander off course, someone will know what is happening, which prompts them to get back on track.
Essentially, body doubling is a perfectly balanced cocktail of positive peer pressure and social accountability, lowering the resistance to begin or complete the tasks feel challenging.
As great as it would be to have a body double on call at all times, that’s not realistic for most people. However, since the key is physical presence, we’ve discovered it can be just as effective when it happens digitally.
Imagine this:
You’re working from home by yourself struggling to get moving on your to-do list, so you jump on a Zoom call with 10 other people who are in the same boat. The host mutes the group while you’re working so everyone can lock into focus with the accountability of everyone else there. And after just an hour, you’ve checked off all the tasks that were keeping you up last night.
This is called a Virtual Coworking Session, and we host them every weekday.
Here’s what our members regularly tell us:
“Got my whole project done! The best feeling. Thanks for the accountability! It was a huge help.”
“I legit blocked off the whole 2 hours to do one task that I finished in the past 30 minutes! I forgot how effective these sessions are.”
“Just finished a task I’ve been putting off for weeks… it only took me 25 minutes!”
Come join us for any session on our calendar — we promise it’ll be the most productive hour of your week 😎
You can try it out for free by booking any session on the calendar, book a session any time for just $10, or learn more about memberships if you’re craving some structure in your schedule.
👋 Thanks for reading!
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Did you know we host virtual coworking sessions every weekday? Join the Free Tier to get your first 3 sessions free!
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