Body Doubling Explained
- Emilia Padovan
- Aug 5
- 2 min read
What is body doubling?
The idea of body doubling is having a person(s) present to help make it easier to start, stick with and finish activities.
For example, activities could be doing the washing up, continuing a knitting project, or starting paperwork.
Body doubling works online, such as on Zoom or when physically in the room with others.
Why does body doubling work?
Structure – body doubling gives a person a timeframe to do or start something.
Gentle accountability – another person being there means we are more likely to follow through and stick with it.
Reducing overwhelm – the presence of another person(s) can make activities feel less daunting.
Social presence – even just knowing other people are there can help reduce feelings of loneliness and boredom, while providing a concrete time-slot for the activity to help those with time paralysis/procrastination issues!
Co-regulation – body doubling can help regulate emotions, e.g. getting frustrated can be helped by being around others who are calm.
Who can body doubling be helpful for?
Body doubling can be helpful for anyone.
It is popular in the neurodivergent community, particularly for ADHD, but you do not need to be neurodivergent for it to work.
How does body doubling work?
Body doubling can be done one-to-one or in a group.
The HMSA runs an online group body doubling session via Zoom for one hour.
During the hour, people can do activities of their choosing, such as crafting, life admin or physio exercises. People can keep their cameras on and type in the chat to create gentle accountability, reduce overwhelm, support co-regulation, and create social presence. In the chat, you can put your chosen activities, progress updates on activities, crafting tips and playlist discussions!
There are 2 HMSA body doubling sessions for HMSA members coming up!
Reference list
Eagle, T., Baltaxe-Admony, L.B. and Ringland, K.E. (2024) ‘“It Was Something I Naturally Found Worked and Heard About Later”: An Investigation of Body Doubling with Neurodivergent Participants’, ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing, 17(3), pp. 1–30. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1145/3689648.
Bennie, M. (2026) ‘What is body doubling?’, Autism Awareness, 10 February. Available at: https://autismawarenesscentre.com/what-is-body-doubling/ (Accessed: 13 April 2026).
Comments