How Coworking / Body Doubling helps people with ADHD get stuff done
Ever felt like you can’t face a big task alone? Or miss having a study hall where someone was watching in case you weren’t actually doing your homework? That’s what Coworking (or Body Doubling) is! And you can Cowork with other friendly ADHDers! Colleen and Brittany talk about coworking, why it’s great, and what it looks like in The ADHD Guild!
What’s the benefit of Coworking with other ADHDers?
The buddy system can be a powerful way to get tasks done that are too hard to face on your own
- Turn down the voice of the inner critic yelling that the task isn’t done or making us feel bad that we won’t do it well
Publicly declaring what we’re about to do makes it easier to actually start doing it.
- Putting into words what we’re about to do makes it more specific, and more likely to actually get done.
Coworking brings out our ADHD Social Motivation (that thing that makes it easier to do something for someone else than for ourselves)
For time-specific accountability, you can schedule and declare the task to be done ahead of time
Having a sense of Community feels good (makes a difference if the coworkers are anonymous or people you already know)
What does Coworking look like?
Often folks show up in Coworking on a schedule, or with an intention to get some work done
But you can also just show up because you’re tired of procrastinating and declare that your first task is to figure out the rest of your tasks
Most declare what they’re working on and then do their work on mute (it’s nice to feel free to mutter to yourself without bothering anyone else)
How does Coworking in The ADHD Guild work?
The most popular coworking option is impulsive coworking (people just show up when it’s time to get stuff done)
Scheduled coworking is available for extra accountability. When you need to commit to a specific time and place to be able to do the thing. (E.g. yoga and Gross Tasks)
Some folks update on their coworking tasks over text in the coworking chat channel and don’t use the video or voice channel
What’s the difference on The ADHD Guild
Unlike some larger, anonymous service, you will get to know the regulars in coworking
It’s a more supportive community because it’s actually a community
It feels totally different to tell my pal Kelly that I’m about to work on this terrifying task I’ve been avoiding for 6 months. A stranger doesn’t care the same as someone in your community
In Journeyman meetings, sometimes someone says what they need to do and someone else says, “Oh! I have to do that, too!” And can team up to do a very similar task together
Video mentioned about rejection sensitivity dysphoria (RSD): https://youtu.be/URJGo10KaTQ