Procrastination, ADHD, and Body Doubling

This very short video is to call your attention to a nice article at Homes and Gardens website on the technique of body-doubling for dealing with problems with procrastination that often arise in conjunction with ADHD. The article can be found here:

I started 'body doubling' when cleaning at home and tedious chores have never felt so easy – plus, it's makes mundane tasks feel like self-care

[meeerdock]

"Aging disgracefully on you tube" counts as a dad joke

[cskyco]

You're not getting older Russ, you're just getting better.

[mnoxman]

I remember in the 70s in grade school getting bad marks on my report cards with things like "works well with others" "can't work independently"

[craptastrophe]

During the pandemic I would watch Twitch streamers paint while I worked as programmer. It gave me something to rest my attention on that wasn't too engrossing. It also gave had a pace-setting effect, returning from diversions and finding how much the artist had gotten done in that time imparted a sense of opportunity cost I normally lacked, which I think counteracted some time-blindness. So I think there's more to it than just being publicly accountable, although I'm sure that's the main benefit.

[kristopherts]

Dr Barkley, count me as one of the many who've found a new life thanks to your YouTube videos and the subsequent interventions.
I'm also a big fan of Dr Chris Palmer. Could the two of you ever do a talk together? I'm sure there are some things that you differ on, but I know that both of you are coming from the best place - the desire to help and give hope to those without.
Thank you so much for doing what you do.

[jdak]

I believe that the reason body doubling works so well is because most people are social creatures, who respond well to social cues.

As an example of this, picture a teenager going over to his friend's house. If he arrives and his friend is playing basketball in the driveway, then the teen is likely to play ball, too. If he arrives and his friend is lazing about on the couch watching TV, then he's likely to laze about as well, but might pull out his cell phone and start scrolling instead of watching the show.

Or picture a small storefront. When one worker arrives at the start of their shift, they see that their coworkers is busy with the day's merchandise shipment, so the newly arrived employee might focus their attention on customer service and straightening the merchandise on the shelves. It's a matter of cue-response. The cue is seeing a colleague already working. The response is to do likewise.

[BongShlong]

Youre an actual angel doing gods work and this work will outlive you by decades. Thanks prof

[AnnieandCC]

I have totally been body doubling for years by instinct. I noticed, for example, that I work more diligently and confidently on my own artwork when other artists are in the studio. I focused best on house chores with a YouTube video going (mostly gardening content) or a really good audio book. Thanks for sharing this because it actually validates what I was doing! I always felt a bit bad because these things were true.

[zak-a-roo]

Why I've always done best as a "right hand man" or in partnership with another that DOESN'T have ADHD.

[themysticalwanderer]

You will always be revered by the ADHD community

[kidwolfman]

I love this because it’s definitely a real thing that my friends and I were naturally doing throughout my life. I think we created some of our best work by just being in the same room together working on entirely different things :)

[vyrsh]

thanks for making small videso for my small attention span

[jonr]

Never mind a body double, I need an exoskeleton like the Iron Man mark 42 autonomous suit. If wishes were horses...

[iliyanovslounge]

Thank you, Dr Barkley, for sharing this piece with us!

[CallippoShafai]

Thank you so much, for making all this content! I didn't know that cleaning while listening to a cleaning video is also body doubling, but it makes perfect sense. I did 4 days of non stop cleaning with Midwest magic cleaning. When I saw all his videos, stopped cleaning 😂 Guess I need to find some new channels...

[publius]

Public accountability in the moment, when we are so often unable to handle things that are not the *now.* That's an important part of it. Just having public accountability otherwise can often just result in feelings of failure when you fail to meet deadlines, either self imposed or externally imposed.

[Sereno]

Thank God, Dr. Russell Barkley doesn't retire but keeps helping us, adults with ADHD

[laurafindsjoy]

Thank you for making a shorter video! I like your content, but I have a hard time with longer videos.

[four]

thank you for this! it's finals season and it feels like the work only ever piles up. i'll definitely be sending this video and article to some of my friends

[engineeringbookisha]

I do this with YouTube and it helps so much