The ADHD Body Double: A Unique Tool for Getting Things Done

Summary

Can something as simple as another person’s presence make it easier to stay on task? While there’s no research to prove its effectiveness, ADHD body doubling is helping many people get things done – starting with my client, David. When I first met David, he was a retired vice president of a major corporation. In his “retirement,” he ran three businesses out of his home office, two of them overseas. Observing David in his workspace, I found him to be quite organized. He wasn’t sitting eyeball-high in papers. In fact, he hardly had any papers around him at all. He had working systems in place, but felt terribly disorganized and distracted. David contacted me because I specialize in coaching adults with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). During my twenty-three years of coaching, I have gathered many tools and strategies for helping clients accomplish desired change and create order out of chaos. The tool I want to share with you today is one born of the unique mix of client and coach inventing together. I call it the body double. Originally published in 1996, this article was republished on February 20th, 2025. What Is ADHD Body Doubling? The methodology of ADHD body doubling is a productivity strategy used by individuals with ADHD to finish possibly annoying jobs while having another person beside them. This person is the body double. The body double’s duty is to keep the individual with ADHD focused on the task at hand to reduce potential distractions and increase motivation. David had been surprised by a recent diagnosis of ADD, which explained his lifelong difficulty accomplishing mundane tasks that others seemed to handle with ease. As a VP in the corporate world, he had always had an executive assistant to connect the dots and pull loose ends together. Now, however, he had the time to do these tasks. He even had the will to do them. He just couldn’t stay on track. David’s wife also ran a business out of their home and had her own well-organized offi...