For most of my life, the hardest part of practicing was simply getting started. Sometimes, it would take me nearly all day to get in an hour of practice, as ridiculous as that may sound.
I mean, I’d start the morning off thinking I’d get all my practicing in before lunch, so I’d have the rest of the day free. But then I’d start organizing my desk, and tell myself I’d do half before lunch and half after. And then I’d clean out the fridge and resolve to practice right after lunch. But after lunch, I’d realize I needed a nap to be effective. And before I knew it, it was 9pm, and I’d be frustrated and emotionally drained from a whole day of not practicing.
I always thought this was just a me thing, so it was eye-opening (and reassuring) to hear professional musicians describe their own experience with this sort of thing1.
For those of us who have difficulty starting things – whether it’s practicing, responding to emails, or doing laundry – is there anything we can do to overcome inertia and make it easier to take that first step? And to keep going?
A promising strategy?
In recent years, a strategy has emerged in the neurodivergent creator and learning community known as “body doubling” which has become increasingly popular.
And what is body doubling exactly?
The gist, is that body doubling is about doing work in the presence of someone else, in order to get things done. Like working on your paper at a coffee shop, instead of trying to overcome writer’s block in the solitude of your home.
But in a 2024 study (Eagle et al.) which surveyed 220 participants from age 18 to 72, researchers found that body doubling can actually take many forms.
And the presence of others also doesn’t have to be real.
Wait…what?
The many forms of body doubling
I mean yes, for some, body doubling means having someone physically present in the room, like a friend, family member, study buddy, or random strangers at the library.
But it could also mean being “present” with someone on the phone, a Zoom call, chat, or one of the growing numbers of platforms devoted to virtual co-working.
Because unlike study groups, where you do actively work together, in body doubling, you don’t have to collaborate, talk, or even interact with each other.
So this could mean tuning into livestreams, listening to podcasts or lofi music streams (like this super popular one highlighted in the study), or even pre-recorded YouTube videos of people studying (like 3 hours in Glasgow with rain and no music or 2.5 hours in Yokohama with piano)!
How is this supposed to help?
How it helps
Well, 35% of respondents in the study reported that body doubling helps them stay focused and complete tasks, instead of getting distracted or off track.
20% reported that it helps with starting tasks and beating procrastination. And 14% noted that another’s presence, whether real or virtual, helps them reduce anxiety or overwhelm when taking on difficult or uncomfortable tasks.
Others explained that body doubling made dull or tedious tasks more tolerable. And some found that this helped with accountability and staying on a deadline too.
But does it really?
Does it help?
This is just self-report, of course, but nearly half of the participants indicated that they were more likely to complete tasks when body doubling than when not. And about 85% noted that they found this to help with task completion to some degree.
And while there have been very few empirical studies in this area, I thought we could take a quick look at the most recently one – a small 2025 study (Ara et al.).
A study!
Essentially, the research team created a virtual reality task – constructing a wall of bricks to match a specific pre-set color pattern – that participants had to complete in a virtual construction site.
In one condition, participants completed the bricklaying task on their own. In another, they completed the task while physically in the same room with another participant who was simultaneously building their own wall in the virtual space. And in a third condition, they completed the task alongside an AI body double named “Remy.”
So was there any difference in performance when performing alone vs. with a body double?
Results
When it came to efficiency, the answer is yes. When working alone, participants completed 8.49 bricks per minute. But when working in the presence of a human body double, they completed 10.82 bricks per minute. And 11.06 bricks per minute with the AI double.
Regarding accuracy, there actually wasn’t much of an objective difference between groups – but participants felt that the level of their performance was significantly higher when working with either a human or AI body double.
Participants also felt that they were able to stay more focused on the task when working with a body double. And, they noted that they were able to get back to the task at hand after distractions when working with a body double.
So what are we to do with all of this?
Takeaways
Well, research in this area is still very young. And it’s important to note that all of the participants in this study were diagnosed with ADHD. So we should be cautious in generalizing from this study to neurotypical individuals.
But I suspect that body doubling is something many of us do quite often – and find helpful – without realizing it.
Looking back at my college years for instance, I remember being more motivated and more engaged in my practice when I was practicing around others, whether in the practice room building at school, or in the practice room areas at summer festivals, relative to me practicing alone at home. I also remember being able to stay on task better when studying at the library vs. alone in my dorm room. And I know I’m much more focused, effective, and efficient when working out at the gym vs. trying to work out alone at home.
Body doubling is something that a number of students said they enjoyed and found helpful during the pandemic too. I remember some studios set up Zoom rooms where students could join, share their goals for the hour, practice, and then share how things went.
So whether it’s practicing/studying in the presence of others (in-person, virtual, live, recorded, real, or AI) or doing chores or tedious tasks while FaceTiming friends, perhaps body doubling could be a new tool in your toolbox to experiment with in the months ahead – and a potentially helpful way to overcome procrastination, get more done, and have a little more fun as well!
I’d be curious to hear your experience with body doubling and how you (or your students) use this in the comments below!
Just one problem…(and an invitation)
One of the challenges, of course, can be finding the right people to do this with. But not to worry – I’m going to try body doubling this week. And you’re invited to join in!
From Monday, January 12 to Friday, January 16, I will be hosting a Coworking Week (or rather, co-hosting, along with one of my own accountability buddies, jazz violinist Christian Howes).
It’s five days of drop-in body doubling sessions (up to three each day) plus a guidebook on how to make the most of the week. You can come to as many or as few sessions as you like. And even one can be a big win. It’s a week to clear distractions, get back into the flow of things after the holidays, and finally check things off your list.
The whole week is just $40, and registration is open now. Click below to see the details and join us!
References
Ara, Z., Rahim, I. B., Zhou, P., Yu, L., Esmaeili, B., Yu, L., & Hong, S. R. (2025). You are not alone: Designing body doubling for ADHD in virtual reality. arXiv (Cornell University). https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.2509.12153
Eagle, T., Baltaxe-Admony, L. B., & 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), 1–30. https://doi.org/10.1145/3689648
I’ve noticed a similar thing with my gym workouts. I have a beautifully equipped home gym but I always seem to workout harder when I drive to the commercial gym. While rationally I understand no one cares about what I’m doing, I’m somehow convinced the other gym goers are counting my reps and holding me accountable. Also the activation energy to get into the car is lots less than going down to the basement. And, once I’m in the car, I’m sort of stuck with working out without much additional psyching up. As Noa said, kinda like the college practice room. Sadly that was 40 years ago. It would be so cool if there were commercial practice rooms one could drive to. My wife loves me playing my well learned repertoire…diminished 7th etudes over and over…well not so much. 😊
Love body doubling! I have used it for practicing, doing taxes or even clean up tasks (where my body double just sees me pass by the camera every so often, with piles or a broom in my hand). I have done it with my students as well. Powerful!
Another good trick (which you probably covered another time) is telling yourself you only have to practice for 10 minutes and then you can stop if you aren’t enjoying it.
Practicing at home alone feels safe to me. Practicing in a rehearsal studio for musicians helps me to feel as if I am part of a group, but can often feel intimidating.
I feel and am markedly more creative and free when I am completely alone.
The moments when I feel as if the group I am playing with and I are actually making music together feels like heaven.
My husband (also a musician) needs to be in a room with others in order to practice or even do administrative work. The body double thing is an absolute must for him.
For me, the benefit of body doubling depends on the activity. If I have to do boring, physical jobs like yard work, house painting or domestic chores, it helps to have company. But any activity that requires concentration, like studying or practicing, I find the presence of other people to be immensely distracting. Even in a practice room by myself, if the sound of other musicians bleeds through the walls, my own practice will suffer.
When I am studying or writing, I prefer listening to quiet instrumental music over silence, because my musician’s brain wants to fill the silence with music that I’m working on, which is likely more interesting that the material that I’m studying. So, oddly, silence can be distracting too. But if the music has vocals with words, or if I’m listening to the radio, and the radio host begins to speak, then I have to stop reading or writing, because I cannot process my own thoughts (in words) while listening to other words.
It’s fascinating how different people can be!
I’ve found that both with art and music, I do better on my own. Other people practicing within earshot is very distracting and so is talking while I’m painting. In fact, I had joined a group of artists with a teacher that talked a LOT (and with a high-pitched voice). I just couldn’t concentrate and finally left when she started encouraging passersby to discuss what we were doing when we were painting en plein air. I do sometimes practice music when my husband is practicing keyboard or bass in another room or the basement and I’m OK with that. Maybe I’ve just gotten used to it. I can’t honestly say that I do better, but at least I don’t think I do worse.
I have not thought of using this for music, but I started applying the principle to my freelance work (copywriting), because I found myself feel really demotivated last year. I’ve started to go to a coworking space, at least a few hours a day/week, to get out of my home working environment. So far, it’s proving effective. Last year, I had also found a practice space with acoustic pianos available. However, sometimes the sound of other performers was incredibly distracting to me. Some were even practicing the same pieces I was working on. I found myself comparing my abilities to theirs. So, I would ideally cowork with other musicians remotely on mute to avoid eavesdropping on others 🙂