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You need help: how to body double when you work alone
The term body-doubling was introduced to me by a friend in late 2021. They expressed it was a handy way for people to slip back into the common “study hall effect” of working alongside friends, often on different projects, while being productive.
Body doubling is a popular tool used for those who may have issues with executive dysfunction, which this article outlines well, but it can also be useful for extroverts who need assistance staying on task or introverts who find it easy to be sucked into their own brain scape. Whatever your reason for body doubling, here are a few tips I use as someone who is self-employed and works on my own most days.
When to use headphones and when to not
This is a pretty specific tip, but I’ve found in many cases wearing headphones while working can be both a hindrance and helpful depending on the scenario. I think headphones are helpful for active work if you enjoy listening to movie soundtracks, lo-fi beats, or high BPM music while working. Air-pods, noise canceling headphones — whatever you pick, these can be useful.
I don’t recommend wearing headphones if you like to use podcasts or youtube videos as background noise to work. This is because in my experience, people’s conversations can be very distracting, and if you have to focus on a project versus doing housework like passively cleaning, you can be more engaged in a conversation with people telling stories on a podcast versus trying to listen and work proactively at the same time.
Choosing the right medium
Episodes of dungeons and dragons games are one of my favorite ways to body double when I am doing passive work. Since episodes range from 2–3.5 hours, sometimes six, this allows me to use one medium of stimulation for a good chunk of time.
I don’t have to worry about tuning out of a key moment like I would in a brief 30–35 minute podcast episode designed to be speedy, with a dungeons and dragons episode like the Critical Role Calamity finale, or a season of Dimension20, I can passively listen to lore dumps, or combat rolls while also focusing most of my attention elsewhere. It’s also much easier to pause or back up if you miss an important piece of…
