Best Results Organizing

Knowing what you have to do and doing it aren’t the same things. If you were raised in the 1980s or 1990s, you learned you were supposed to eat according to the food pyramid. Nowadays, there’s the updated MyPlate approach to healthy eating, to make sure everyone gets the right proportions of fruits and vegetables, grains, protein, and dairy each day.

But knowing how you should eat doesn’t mean that you’ve never contemplated chowing down on break room doughnuts for breakfast. And it’s not just fictional characters like Olivia Pope who’ve had wine and popcorn for dinner.

And while sometimes family, friends, and colleagues can lead us astray from nutritional goals, it’s been proven that hanging out with people whose health goals are similar to yours can help keep you on the straight and narrow.

Simply put, when you’re with people who model good behavior, you’re more likely to participate in that good behavior. So, what does this have to do with organizing or productivity?

BODY DOUBLING AND ACCOUNTABILITY 

Two years ago, I wrote Count on Accountability: 5 Productivity Support Solutions, one of the most popular posts I’ve had in the 15+ years I’ve been writing the Paper Doll blog. The concept of getting accountability support to conquer procrastination and achieve more productivity really resonated.

Perhaps you only know about body doubles in movies or on TV. That kind of body double often appears when the featured character is doing something the actor can’t do, like a backflip or fancy dance move. Subsets of body doubles are stunt doubles, or in the case of some films with a bit of nudity, “butt doubles.” However, when we’re talking about productivity, the “butt” is not about someone else’s; it’s about getting your own derriere into the chair to attack avoided tasks.

In that post two years ago, I explained the body doubling technique developed in the ADHD community. In support groups, participants found that when another person was present, participating in quiet tasks with a similar (non-distracting) energy, it helped the individual maintain focus and motivation. We professional organizers often work as body doubles with clients (both those with ADHD and those without) because it successfully creates an environment for focused work.

Any of us on our own (but particularly clients with ADHD) might (intentionally or unintentionally) delay working on a task or get distracted. Realized or unrealized anxiety about a task — fear of failure, for example — can prevent someone from starting, but you have to start in order to have anything you can improve upon. (See: “You can’t edit a blank page.”)

When a project is hanging over your head, you might find ways to delay or distract yourself, but when someone is there, investing their time in you (and you’re investing your time and money to achieve your goals), body doubling helps you push past the anxiety and be more productive. 

As a professional organizer, when I’m body doubling with a client, we may be working side-by-side or across from one another. I may pre-sort piles of papers into categories (bills to pay, documents to review, items to file) while the client is working through one category at a time to complete distinct tasks. Students quietly studying for an exam in the library or doing homework in study hall are similarly using the body doubling method to achieve focus and productivity.

Scientific research on the benefits of body doubling are scant, but I can think of at least six (interlocking) ways in which body doubling advances an individual’s ability to stick with a task:

• Accountability — By definition, accountability is “the obligation or willingness to accept responsibility for one’s actions.” You may feel like introducing a second party to get your own work done is cheating, but it’s not.

Really, accepting responsibility means marshaling all of your resources to attack a problem and achieve the stated outcome. If a body double, accountability partner, mastermind or study group, workout partners, or anyone else can help you achieve your goals by their mere presence in your life, availing yourself is no different from having a state-of-the-art computer, a current eyeglass prescription, or properly-fitting running shoes. A body double is just a quiet, human-shaped resource for maintaining accountability.

Studying in Library Photo by Robert Bye on Unsplash

• Social pressure — If someone present with you expects you to get something done, you’re probably going to stick with it and do it. Of course, we’re not all equally responsive to the presence and expectations of others.

Gretchen Rubin’s work on her Four Tendencies framework (how we respond to inner and outer expectations) is a great place to start for understanding the role of social pressure in getting things accomplished.

Some people are Upholders, disciplined at meeting both their own expectations and those of others. Me? I’m an Obliger. I’ve got superior discipline when someone is waiting for me to do something. I am always on time to meetings or appointments, and I deliver what is expected of me by deadlines. However, I’m iffy at goals that only satisfy my own preferences.

Rebels can’t be forced or convinced, but the beauty is that a body double isn’t a boss or a manager telling you what to do. The body double is just mirroring what you’re doing. There’s nothing to rebel against; the body double is just along for the ride. Meanwhile, Questioners can’t be convinced by expectations, only their own pathway to finding meaning in the task. As with Rebels, the body double’s role is as travel companion.

The key is that for those who struggle with getting started or sticking with a task, a partner or several can improve the likelihood of reaching goals.

• Project or task orientation cues — On their own, many people have difficulty maintaining focus on the project at hand. This can be the result of any of a variety of executive function disorders or just a byproduct of living in the 21st century.

For every work-related search you do on Google, you’ll encounter numerous links — both on the search page and then in the sidebars, body, and bottom of the articles you’re reading — specifically designed to take you somewhere else on the web.

On our own, we go down rabbit holes and can’t find our way back to the original link or get trapped in dozens of open browser tabs. Body doubling means that just on the periphery of our consciousness, we’re aware that someone else is present, and that keeps us tethered to our work. We may go astray, but our body double’s presence can bring us (and our focus) back to the here and now.

• Biological cues — The experience of participating in body doubling and mirroring the body double’s behavior can help activate some nifty neurotransmitters. Literally, doing the task cues the bodily systems to kick start, making it easier to hunker down and do the work.

Do It Now Scrabble Tiles by Brett Jordan on Unsplash

• Task execution — “Well begun is half done.” (Aristotle) “You don’t have to be good to start … you just have to start to be good!” (Joe Sabah) “Only put off until tomorrow what you are willing to die having left undone.” (Pablo Picasso)

Such quotes are all well and good, but if you’re using procrastination to soothe your present discomfort, you already know you’re going to feel worse as the deadline approaches. To borrow from what I wrote in my original post on accountability: 

Canadian psychology professor and all-around expert on procrastination, Timothy Pychyl, author of Solving the Procrastination Puzzle: A Concise Guide to Strategies for Change, explains that procrastination isn’t just delay. He explains that procrastination is “a voluntary delay of an intended act,” one where the person procrastinating is cognizant that the delay is going to have a cost, whether that cost is financial, interpersonal, professional, legal, or otherwise.

When we procrastinate, we know that there’s no upside; we aren’t merely weighing a logical choice between two options of equal value. It’s less, “geez, how can I decide on whether to go on this romantic anniversary date with my spouse or prepare for my presentation this week?” and more, “Eek, I’m feeling icky about doing this thing for some reason and I’ll latch on to any random thing, like bingeing a sit-com I’ve seen in its entirety three times!”

Experts like Pychyl have found that at its base, procrastination is “an emotion regulation strategy” – a way to cope with a particular emotion while failing to self-regulate and perform a task we know we need to do. We convince ourselves we’d rather feel good now, thereby causing more trouble for our future selves.

Getting started on those tasks is hard. But the minute you have another person there with you, you’ve got a (silent) partner whose presence makes getting procrastinating less possible and doing the (appropriate) activity a smidgen easier.

• Extended focus — It’s common to have trouble sticking with tasks that are boring, repetitive (and thus boring) or lengthy (again, yawn). The presence of others who match your energy and behavior type (reading, writing, doing math homework, sorting, etc.) sprinkles a little extra fairy dust to keep focus a bit longer.

If you were doing a series of Pomodoros (25 minutes of work, 5 minute breaks) on your own, you might give up after one or two. Someone else doing the same or similar tasks in your nearby environment is kind of like keeping pace with another random jogger or bicyclist on your route. If you were on your own, you might give up, but just a little bit of what I think of “competitive companionship” may be all you need to keep going.

To learn more about body doubling, consider:

Could a Body Double Help You Increase Your Productivity? (CHADD)

‘Body doubling,’ An ADHD Productivity Tool, Is Flourishing Online (Washington Post)

Use Body Doubling to Increase Your Productivity (Life Hacker)

How Body Doubling Helps When You Have ADHD (VeryWellMind.com)

I Tried A ‘Body Doubling’ App To Help With Focus – It’s Weird But It Works (Refinery 29)

What to Know About the ‘Body Doubling’ Trend That’s Keeping People with ADHD on Task (Men’s Health)

CO-WORKING FOR ACCOUNTABILITY

Body doubling as a method of accountability has been on my mind lately. In addition to regular client-related work and this blog, I have four special projects in the course of six weeks. I’m being interviewed for a podcast and for a video summit, participating an online summit requiring me to make a video and appear on live virtual panels, and I’ve got an in-person speaking engagement next week. Yikes!

All of these projects require research, writing, and finessing of verbal expression. (I like to be prepared, even when I will eventually have to be extemporaneous.) Deep down, I know it will be fine, but we all have bits of performance anxiety seep in. Timothy Pychyl might say that my temptation toward procrastination is a bit of (messed-up) emotional regulation strategy. But I’ve had (and will soon have more) help in sorting it all out.

Co-Writing Sessions

I’m a member of the Authorship and Publishing Special Interest Group (SIG) in the National Association of Productivity and Organizing Professionals (NAPO). We have monthly meetings and an email group for supporting one another as we write books, articles, blog posts, presentations, and other projects.

Last week, the SIG began holding weekly two-hour co-writing sessions. A small number of us log on to a Zoom call, talk about what we hope to accomplish, and then settle down to write. We each muted our microphones (especially important for me, as I tend to think out loud, which would make it hard to be a silent body double for anyone else), content in the knowledge that if we needed to reach out to our fellow writers, we could type a message into the Zoom chat.

When I minimized the Zoom window, instead of it dropping into the Mac dock or otherwise hiding, it turned into a tiny, floating, repositionable window (about 3/4″ high by 2″ wide). I could see one of my co-writers — in miniature — and it reminded me that I had a goal and that someone <waves hands> out there is on my side in the effort to get my project done.

At the top of the next hour, we turned our mics back on just long enough to check in, offer support, and return to our writing for another hour. I used the first co-writing session to prepare my notes for the summit interview two days later, and felt so confident and prepared because I had this co-writing time. 

These are drop-in sessions on a fixed day each week; the participants will change according to each writer’s need and availability, but I’m already looking forward to the next one.

“Making Space to Write” Virtual Writing Retreat

In some ways, that co-writing session was a practice run for an event this past Friday, January 27th. Two of our Authorship & Publishing colleagues, Standolyn Robertson and Leslie Hatch Gail, put a lot of planning into the event. Registration was required, and we had an hour-by-hour retreat agenda.

We were encouraged to set our goals in advance, and once we arrived, after brief introductions and some housekeeping announcements, we hunkered down for 45 minutes of quiet writing time, nudged by a slide with a motivating quote. 

(Per participant requests, I am not including any identifying photos.)

Because the live Zoom screen showed the participant gallery and a shared slide, the minimized floating screen wasn’t showing me my colleagues, just the slide. I thought that might lessen my feeling that I was being body doubled, but it didn’t. I was always aware (and calmed by) the slide’s reminder of everyone’s presence.

From then on, at the top of each hour we had 15-minute “human breaks” to stretch, address any biological needs, and answer a prompt slide prompt. Questions were lighthearted and ranged from “What hobbies are you participating in?” to “What was your best purchase in the last year?” We entered our answers on the chat screen, had a little verbal interaction on Zoom, but at the quarter hour mark, we all went back to writing.

What fascinated me was that every time I’d get to a logical stopping point in my writing, ready to take a breather, I’d look at the clock and see it was just the 59 minute mark of the hour! 

Around 1 p.m. (in my time zone), we took an hourlong lunch break. Some attendees had to run errands, but for the majority who stayed, it was like having a lunch with co-workers, something we professional organizers (mostly solopreneurs) rarely get to do. Finally, after a full day of writing, we had a social hour during which time we played a rousing and hysterical online version of Scattergories.

Which Experience Was Better?

Comparing and contrasting these two events, it’s easy to see the differences. The co-writing session was fairly informal, of a short duration, and included only four participants. While we used one member’s Zoom account, there were no real leaders; we each took responsibility for our own behavior.

Conversely, the virtual writing retreat was more formal (with the exception of wardrobe), with Standolyn and Leslie moderating and leading us through activities. It ran from 11a to 6p (including lunch and our day-ending Scattergories socializing) and had about a dozen writers in attendance. 

On an ongoing basis, I can see the advantage of short, weekly co-writing sessions. I’m not usually a fan of events that are too formal or rigid in terms of an agenda. But I absolutely loved the retreat and am hoping we’ll have them a few times a year, as I can picture using the experience to keep me motivated and focused for long-form writing projects.

What’s Next for Paper Doll and Body Doubling Accountability Sessions?

My first experience with these kinds of virtual session was more than a decade ago, when my colleague Deb Lee ran “Action Day” events, which were similar, but run on the telephone. Participants called in, talked about their goals for household or work projects — technology-related tasks were always popular — and stepped off the phone to work. We had various check-ins throughout the day. (In later years, Action Day went high-tech with video conferencing.)

Deb and I used to be on various committees together, but rarely get to chat nowadays. I’d been missing the inspiration she brings to every encounter. After a quick email discussion, we’ve scheduled our own Action Day/Body Doubling/Accountability Extravaganza for mid-February. It’ll be suuuuuuper-informal and only for a few hours, but just anticipating the experience is helping to dispel my procrastination gremlins from their usual hiding places.

FINDING YOUR IDEAL BODY DOUBLE OR ACCOUNTABILITY PLATFORM

My experience has focused on writing, and certainly as evidenced by research summarized in pieces like Writing Accountability Groups (WAGs): A Tool to Help Junior Faculty Members Build Sustainable Writing Habits, it works. But body doubling works to support accountability and boost goal achievement for any activity, from getting your housework done to writing your overdue post-wedding thank you notes. It’s just a matter of finding the right approach and platform for your needs.

In my original post, I focused on five types of accountability options (with some suggested links):

• accountability partners, like friends, colleagues, or people you can meet through apps
• accountability groups, like mastermind groups, in-person or virtual study groups, and professional groups
• professionals, including professional organizers, ADHD coaches, life coaches, and fitness trainers
• apps and gadgets
• accountability events

Not all accountability experiences or platforms are designed for body doubling, per se. For example, mastermind groups tend to focus on support through discussion; all coaches act more like instructors some of the time, though some will offer body doubling support.

Attributes of Body Doubling Platforms

If you want to experiment with body doubling for accountability, consider these factors:

• Formality — Do you prefer things to be structured or loosey-goosey?
• Number of participants — Would you rather only know there’s one other person in a session?
• Familiarity with participants — Would you feel more comfortable with strangers or people you know well (or perhaps people you only know a little bit)?
• Cost — Will you be more motivated if you pay someone (like a professional organizer or coach) or an organization, or might that cause you stress? Would you rather sign up for a monthly membership (like going to the gym) or would you prefer to only pay for drop-in or ad hoc activities?
• Level of communication — Do you want to mostly be a Silent Sam and not have any interaction with your body double(s)? Would you prefer frequent social check-ins, perhaps each hour?

Group Body Doubling For Productivity and Accountability

Two years ago, there were only a few major platforms for group co-working that embraced the body doubling approach as part of accountability groups; now, there are many more. Next time, I’ll be sharing a post comparing the different platforms, their features and costs, and how they work.

And, based on my recent experience, I’ve been considering setting up my own virtual events, perhaps starting with my (in-person and virtual) clients — perhaps a Study Hall for Grownups or Admin Action Adventure. (Yeah, I’ll keep working on the name.)

Similarly, you might gather family, friends, or colleagues to participate on a more ad hoc basis when you need a little support.

---

Have you participated in any (virtual or in-person) body-doubling activities? What do you do when you need accountability support, and don’t want to talk that much about it, but just do it?