Name one thing you are about to do. You are in a room straight away — people arrive while you settle in.
Body doubling
Doing your task while someone else does theirs. Nobody helps, nobody checks your work, nobody asks how it went. Their presence is the mechanism.
A simple co-working structure people use to start tasks, stay with them, and feel less alone.
Modeled behavior is very potent
Research snapshot
Widely used, lightly studied. The controlled trials so far mostly find no significant effect — a reason not to promise you anything, not a reason to avoid it.
People worked faster with someone there
In one small ADHD preprint, 12 adults finished a repetitive task about 25% faster with a body double than alone.
Small sample, one lab task, and not yet peer reviewed.Ara et al., 2025
People who use it report longer focus
In a 12-week survey of 117 UK adults with diagnosed or suspected ADHD, most said their focus stretches improved, and average self-rated anxiety fell from 7.3 to 5.1 out of 10.
Self-reported, no control group, and run by a company that sells body doubling.FLOWN, 2024
It is already a real-world strategy
A survey of 220 neurodivergent people documented body doubling as a community-developed practice for starting tasks, sticking with them, and getting through chores.
Describes how people use it, not whether it works.Eagle et al., 2024