Body Doubling: The Productivity Hack Everyone Is Talking About

Hybrid and remote work have transformed how businesses operate. Employees have more flexibility, but many individuals are now struggling with new challenges. These include fragmented attention, difficulty starting tasks, digital overwhelm, and a growing sense of isolation.

These problems affect everyone. But they can be especially hard for people with ADHD or other attention challenges. Many employees will not disclose a diagnosis, often because they fear stigma.

One simple increasingly popular solution is body doubling. Long used informally within ADHD communities, body doubling is now gaining traction as a practical tool to boost focus and wellbeing when working remotely.

What is body doubling?

Body doubling is the practice of working alongside another person - either in person or virtually - to improve focus, accountability and motivation.

You are not collaborating or speaking to each other; you work silently on your own work, in the presence of others who are also focused on theirs. The presence itself is what matters.

In a workplace, body doubling can take many forms:

two colleagues working quietly together for an hour
a small group joining a scheduled virtual “focus session”
team members co-working online during admin-heavy periods
structured deep-work blocks built into the working week

Unlike meetings, body doubling sessions are not about discussion, updates or decision-making. They exist purely to create the conditions for focused work.

Why does body doubling work?

Body doubling is based on these well-established psychological and behavioural principles:

Social mimicry

We subconsciously attune to the emotional and behavioural states of people around us. Calm, focused presence helps regulate attention and nervous system responses.

Group accountability

Humans tend to perform tasks more consistently when others are present. Even light social presence can reduce procrastination.

Streamed motivation

Virtual body doubling is essentially Netflix for focus: a screen full of people who are getting on with their work. Having it on in the background as you try to get started is highly motivating.

Time-boxing and structure

Body doubling sessions are usually time-bound. Clear start and end points help people commit, focus, and stop work cleanly.

Together, these effects make it easier to begin work, stay with it, and avoid constant task-switching.

Evidence of impact

While body doubling has long been used informally, new digital platforms are now generating measurable data.

Data from one digital body-doubling platform suggests that users experience an average 123% increase in output when working in a structured body-doubling session compared with working alone. Individual reports range from 25% to over 300% higher productivity, particularly for tasks requiring sustained attention.

Beyond productivity, users consistently report:

reduced overwhelm
less task avoidance
improved confidence in their ability to focus
greater sense of connection while working remotely

Why body doubling is especially powerful for neurodivergent employees

Many employees with ADHD struggle not with skill or motivation, but with overcoming procrastination, task initiation, and managing overwhelm.

In unstructured remote/hybrid environments, this can show up as:

difficulty starting tasks
spinning between priorities
procrastination despite high effort
burnout driven by constant self-regulation

Crucially, many employees will never formally disclose ADHD or executive function challenges. That makes traditional accommodations difficult to implement.

Body doubling as a team activity works because it:

does not require diagnosis or disclosure
provides external structure without micromanagement
reduces reliance on individual executive function
feels supportive rather than corrective

Importantly, what helps neurodivergent employees almost always helps everyone else too. Protected focus time and reduced context-switching benefit everyone, not just those with ADHD.

Practical ways to implement body doubling in businesses

The biggest advantage of body doubling is how easy it is to try. It requires no complex policy changes and minimal cost.

1. Introduce optional focus sessions

Create sections of the week where there are strictly no meetings, and offer optional, clearly labelled focus sessions during those times:

“Deep Work Wednesday”
“Admin Hour”
“Focus Fridays (10–12)”

Attendance should always be optional, especially so it feels like a choice rather than surveillance.

Sessions work best when they:

are time-boxed (45–90 minutes)
start with a brief intention-setting moment
involve silent work rather than chit-chatting throughout

2. Use virtual body doubling tools

You can perform body doubling virtually using either:

● shared video calls, e.g. Zoom, Teams, etc.

● structured body-doubling platforms, e.g. FLOWN, Focusmate, Flow club, etc

Dedicated body-doubling platforms often offer structured formats such as facilitated sessions, always-on focus rooms, or peer-to-peer sessions, which can make it easier to build consistency and routine compared with informal co-working calls.

3. Offer body doubling as a reasonable adjustments

For employees who need additional support to manage their ADHD or other neurodivergence, make access to body doubling platforms a part of reasonable adjustment options offered to employees.

This can be a very cost-effective and impactful intervention, and as body doubling is non-clinical and non-stigmatising, it avoids singling people out.

4. Model focus at leadership level

Culture is shaped by what leaders visibly do. When leaders:

attend focus sessions
respect protected focus time
avoid interrupting deep-work blocks

…teams feel safer doing the same, and focus becomes embedded into the company culture.

Cultural benefits beyond productivity

Body doubling offers benefits that go beyond output.

Reduced loneliness

Light human presence helps counter the isolation of remote work without forcing social interaction.

Improved cohesion

Working alongside others creates shared rhythm and routine, even across locations.

Support for early-career employees

Younger employees often struggle with unstructured work. Body doubling provides a visible model of how to organise and pace work.

Healthier work boundaries

Time-boxed focus sessions encourage clearer starts and stops, reducing burnout and digital presenteeism.

A low-cost, high-impact intervention

For businesses navigating remote work, body doubling is a rare thing: a low-cost, immediately actionable intervention that improves focus, inclusion and wellbeing at the same time.

In a world of constant distraction, sometimes the most powerful productivity tool is simply working quietly, together.

About the author

Alicia Navarro is a serial tech entrepreneur and the founder and CEO of FLOWN. FLOWN is a virtual body doubling platform designed to help professionals improve productivity and reduce distraction. The platform supports remote and hybrid teams with structured focus sessions grounded in behavioural science.