Body Doubling
76 comments
·March 4, 2025satvikpendem
rickyyean
If this concept resonates, https://www.flow.club/ is where you'll find people who practice this technique regularly. We use it to do everything from the work we care about and want to be even better at, to work we don't care for like taxes, bills and laundry but have some mental block or emotional resistance to.
I think people with ADHD are hyper attuned to the effort that goes into everything from the moment we wake up (related term: executive dysfunction), so we look for ways to facilitate "doing." Other people who have similar levels of awareness tend to be self-employed (your time costs you), working parents (limited time and energy) and graduate students (long-term dread), but not everyone. And no, I don't think this is a purely remote work issue.
With all the AI discussion I'll just take a moment to talk about humans. HN probably thinks anything having to do with other humans are yuck especially on the internet and would be proven right most of the time. But humans and internet-mediated humans can also be great if the product does a good and careful job to allow their best parts shine. That's why we love HN and admire dang, and we try to make https://www.flow.club/ another awesome human corner of the internet.
VonTum
I'm just so tired of this VC urge to monetize every possible aspect of human interaction. You're selling yourself as a "community", but instead of actually doing that you lure people in with a free trial, to then use the friendships people make to lock them into a ridiculous 40€/month subscription.
Sorry, but I'm not paying 3x a netflix subscription for what amounts to little more than a glorified discord bot.
Actually, now that I look for it, I found this exact product as a discord server. And would point people there instead: https://discord.com/invite/study
pj_mukh
Mentioned this below as well. Seconding Flow Club. I don't have ADHD, but am just a new parent and god having an "appointment" w/ other people for deep work changes everything.
Shoutout to Ricky and co!
pinkmuffinere
I’ve been doing this for a long time, calling them “study parties”. It works quite well for me. I wonder if this is some sort of indication that I have adhd, or if it’s just a generally effective strategy.
amfarrell617
[flagged]
dang
"Please respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone says, not a weaker one that's easier to criticize. Assume good faith."
batch12
I thought this was about mundane tasks too?
polairscience
Are mundane tasks not the most difficult for people with ADHD?
non-
I used to host weekly virtual co-working for founders who needed some accountability. We got a lot done during those sessions and ultimately met my co-founder through it. Later today we'll be body doubling virtually to get our taxes done together.
pinkmuffinere
Why do you say “used to host”? What made you stop?
joshdavham
I’ve intuitively know about ‘body doubling’ for years but had never heard the term. I’ve just always understood that I tend to get the most work done in coworking spaces and cafes and not when I’m at home by myself.
0xbadcafebee
You don't necessarily need the person to be there. My house is never cleaner than after I've been on the phone with a friend. My mind shuts off, my body does all the chores I've been procrastinating, while my friend does her art, and we both catch up on life.
Comparatively, working in a coffee shop does not make me get more work done, I just feel better.
rco8786
This was the only way I could study in college. I had “study groups” but in reality all we did was sit quietly next to each other working through our own material. Worked amazingly.
I’m not ADHD, but that’s probably a bigger discussion
nilslindemann
I can confirm this. As soon as there is someone else near me, I become productive. When I am alone I have no big motivation to do anything.
wustus
I’ve noticed this quite a few times before when working with my systems administrator: He calls me in for a debugging session of a problem he‘s been stuck on for some time and within a few minutes (or less than a minute) he finds the solution. I’ve always seen it as him having to reorganize his thoughts to give me a somewhat structured introduction into the problem. And somewhere along the path he finds the missing piece.
hinkley
Rubber ducking works better with a live duck.
zeta0134
Attempts have been made to replicate this effect, with limited success, through the use of a rubber duck:
https://rubberduckdebugging.com/
The general idea is to first try explaining your problem to the duck, which is thought to activate the same problem restructuring pathways. However, I've always found that a human makes for a much better rubber duck in practice. Something about the immediacy of the conversation helps my brain to stay on task and not get distracted partway through the explanation.
conductr
This happens to me too but I also find taking a walk is all that I need and often try not to drag other people into it
yrcyrc
This, absolutely. Can totally relate.
matthewmueller
I find this also works when you go to coffeeshops that have a lot of people working
smoghat
I am the exact opposite. I used to hear about people going to coffee shops and doing work and I would go there and I’d just be completely distracted by everything around me. I was forced to work in an open office for a while and I would have to leave early and risk getting in trouble so that I could get work done at home.
cautious-fly
Any difference between this and https://www.focusmate.com ?
idonov
This reminds me of https://www.focusmate.com/
stavros
I happened to do this at work with a coworker, and it was fantastic. I immediately went from being able to get nothing done to being able to be productive.
This is a concept primarily for people with ADHD by the way, if you're not in this target group you might not understand why it's needed, as we already see in this thread.