Body doubling

Body doubling is doing your own work while another person is present, in the room or on a call, so that starting and staying on task is easier. Many people with ADHD use it because the other person's presence gives the task a start time and a reason to keep going.

By Amaan Nizam Published 19 September 2026. Updated 20 October 2026.

Amaan Nizam founded Sailyn and builds it alongside a mechatronics degree at THWS Würzburg-Schweinfurt and work at the university's Center for Robotics. An earlier venture, FluxTation, won first prize at the THWS Campus Startup Day. Who built it and why.

Why it helps

The other person does not help with the work. What they add is a fixed moment to begin and a quiet expectation to stay. For somebody whose difficulty is starting rather than knowing what to do, that can be enough. It is a practice people report helping, not a treatment, and the research on it is still thin.

What the evidence says

There is less research than the popularity suggests. Controlled studies of body doubling itself are few and their results are mixed, and the most quoted numbers come from services that sell it, such as a survey Focusmate ran of its own members, which is self-reported.

The older and better established finding is social facilitation: people tend to do simple, well-practised tasks faster when somebody else is present, and new or difficult ones a little worse. That fits how people describe body doubling: it helps most with work you already know how to do and keep not starting.

Focusmate, 2024. focusmate.com · Zajonc, 1965. Science 149(3681)

How to do it

Agree a start time and a length, say fifty minutes, before either of you begins.
Say out loud, or type, the one thing you will each work on.
Work in silence. The point is presence, not conversation.
At the end, say what you got done, and take a break before the next one.

Doing it online

A video call works, and so does a shared timer with nobody on camera. What matters is that both of you know the other has started.

How a shared session works in Sailyn

You link with a friend once, by username. Either of you can propose a time and a length, the other agrees, and when it starts you both see the same clock and the same end time. Either of you can reschedule it, and you each work on your own thing.

Nobody is ranked, and if one of you has to stop early, neither of you loses anything already earned.

How Sailyn does it

Sail now with someone starts a session on one shared clock with a friend you have linked with. You both see the same time, either of you can pause or end it for both, and nobody is ranked. You can also plan a session together for later, and it is on both of your plans when it comes round.

Know what you need to do, but can't get started? Sailyn gives you one next step, a plan that adapts, and no penalty for difficult days.

Try it