Did you know that Sycamore OBM hosts a virtual co-working, body doubling session every Wednesday morning at 10 am? 

It’s an informal meeting, cameras and mics on or off depending on your preference, where we work together and support each other, since we so rarely get to meet our colleagues and clients in person. We often start the session by sharing what we intend to focus on during the hour, but that isn’t obligatory.

EVERYONE is welcome to join us!

The evolution of co-working

Most of us are familiar with the concept of co-working. In-person this often manifests as hot desking in open plan office space that is rented on a pay-as-you-go or regular basis, or joining other freelancers at the local café, for example. The practice of virtual co-working is, particularly post-pandemic, also reasonably well known. 

Co-working can offer an anchoring sense of community and of ‘going to work’ for home-based and remote freelancers and entrepreneurs, who don’t have a full-time office full of colleagues to interact with on the daily.

(We appreciate that many neurodivergent people work remotely on purpose – other people can be exhausting!)

What is body doubling and how can it help?

Neurodivergent business owners, particularly those with ADHD, can find task initiation and completion difficult. There are often “blocks” to getting started on tasks that don’t offer shiny, dopamine-filled rewards. 

These tasks can slide (and slide… and slide…) down the to-do list in favour of side quests (tangential, procrastinatory, but often potentially useful rabbit holes we fall down when we’re avoiding things we don’t want to do) hyper-focuses (deeply consuming, sometimes fleeting, interests and hobbies)  or more immediately gratifying tasks that give an easy dopamine fix.

These diversions and blocks are not for lack of willpower or discipline. In fact, they often lead to feelings of great shame when we struggle to initiate seemingly simple tasks.. What’s needed is support that is motivational, empathetic and provides accountability and company. Enter body doubling. 

What is a Body Double?

A body double is a supportive friend/colleague who accompanies you –  virtually or in-person, through tasks that are difficult or frustrating to engage with. Their presence helps to reduce the chances of distraction and provides accountability and focus. Body doubling can also provide someone to be a sounding board or help answer questions. 

You might work on the same task as each other, or on separate tasks together or in parallel. Simply working alongside a calming presence can help dysregulated ADHD-ers find calm themselves. 

This kind of neurodivergent body doubling is not to be confused with stunt body doubling in film and TV… unless, of course, you work in film and TV as a body double and need a body double to help you complete a body doubling task on set!  I digress…

Tips for Body Doubling Success:

• Use a timer – ADHD brains often work well under looming deadlines!
• Unplug – Turn off your phone, restrict your social media access etc. during Body Doubling sessions.
• Try body doubling apps:  these apps will pair you virtually with other people looking to find focus and initiative. Do a test session with a few as they will each offer different experiences – here are a few examples:
  • Flown
  • Deepwrk
  • Focusmate
  • Cofocus 
  • Cave Day
  • Flow Club
  • Dubbii (particularly for housework and cleaning)

A caveat: Body-doubling in itself can be glimmery and dopamine-filled! If you body double with a friend and end up chatting about Love Island, Pedro Pascal or what’s for tea, work can soon be forgotten.

Choose your body double wisely!

Still unsure? 

Try a soft start and come along to a Sycamore Focus Session on a Wednesday morning!

We won’t put you on the spot, judge or  view you as anything other than a freelancing peer. We all procrastinate, we all side-step the bits of our jobs we dislike. 

Your presence might be exactly what we need to unblock that report we don’t want to write, or the numbers we can’t face crunching. 

You’d be doing us a favour – come along! 😊 

Join us this Wednesday at 10 am for a Sycamore Focus Session—click below to take the first step toward better productivity!