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The ADHD body double: A unique tool for getting things done

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Re: The ADHD body double: A unique tool for getting things done

#161

Post by drzaiusx11 »

pydry wrote: post #79
Tabular-Iceberg wrote: post #59

This is where remote work goes off the rails, but then it’s wild how intentionally isolating the implementation of RTO that many large corporations are doing now. They line people up in rows, put headphones on their heads and wire them up to Teams and Jira to spend the whole day in isolation. Because taking a walk to another floor of building to talk to someone like a normal human being is too wasteful, but somehow f…

It's about maintaining a feeling of control, it's not about collaboration. Thats just the lie they tell to RTO. Ive worked in: 1) collaborative in office 2) uncollaborative in office 3) collaborative wfh 4) uncollaborative wfh Personally i found 4 to be the most tortuous (because of ADHD), but 2 isnt much better. 1 and 3 i think are roughly equally good while you're there but wfh has so many ancillary benefits like n…

for me, #3 is the ideal, but communication and collaboration being primarily async is the key. face to face has a place but 90% of the time it “could/should have been an email”, and just exhausts me like nothing else… (“high functioning” AuDHDer)

Re: The ADHD body double: A unique tool for getting things done

#162

Post by TeMPOraL »

erikerikson wrote: post #153
saghm wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They line people up in rows, put headphones on their heads and wire them up to Teams and Jira to spend the whole day in isolation. Because taking a walk to another floor of building to talk to someone like a normal human being is too wasteful, but somehow forcing everyone to spend hours commuting isn’t. Sure, this is pretty much exactly what I'd expect from companies; wasting the employee's time doesn't matter, but…

Except we're largely talking about salaried employees who aren't paid by the hour.

They may not be paid by the hour, but they're being graded by the hour.

It may be beneficial to the company to save overall "company time" at expense of wasting time for many individual employees, but I don't think this analysis accounts for the costs of people leaving or being fired. Both of those are very costly, but they're step changes and hard to attribute to any specific cause.

Re: The ADHD body double: A unique tool for getting things done

#163

Post by deinonychus »

wormius wrote: post #31

My roommate comes in and talks, and while they're doing that I automatically start cleaning my room. I am a slob otherwise. But something about that, it gives me a chance to be away from "online" while also giving me a sort of mental "space"/distraction so I'm not focused/anxious/worried and seems to help me reduce my "executive dysfunction". I also have a tendency to place self-demands and so it makes me doing thing…

>My roommate comes in and talks, and while they're doing that I automatically start cleaning my room.

The moment a guest enters my apartment, my body immediately begins cleaning my kitchen and putting away dishes and cleaning up messes or tidying my living room.

I never thought of this in the body doubling context, but as a self-soothing thing for social pressure. Or maybe genuine guilt for the state of my apartment. It gives me something to do instead of just standing around maintaining eye contact (and the second effect of making the place nicer to exist in, for me and my guest).

Kind of reminds me of another social self-soothing thing, where if I'm not entirely comfortable with a guest (a newer friends or romantic partner) I subconsciously place something in between us, like standing on opposite sides of the kitchen island.

>Having someone in the room helps me relax that self-demand. I don't "should" I just "do".

I feel this in my bones. I've been living alone for a few years and I'm actually going to move in with a roommate soon to see if it can keep me "online" more often without draining me. I totally think it's a good idea to try hang or work in the living room with your laptop.

Re: The ADHD body double: A unique tool for getting things done

#165

Post by drzaiusx11 »

AbstractH24 wrote: post #106
pydry wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's about maintaining a feeling of control, it's not about collaboration. Thats just the lie they tell to RTO. Ive worked in: 1) collaborative in office 2) uncollaborative in office 3) collaborative wfh 4) uncollaborative wfh Personally i found 4 to be the most tortuous (because of ADHD), but 2 isnt much better. 1 and 3 i think are roughly equally good while you're there but wfh has so many ancillary benefits like n…

The trouble with 3 is that while achievable, it requires an incredibly high degree of intentionality and strong leadership.

i don’t see how leadership has anything to do with it, at least any more than any other collaborating members of the team. all parties need “good enough” communication skills, which can be learned (to an extent). poor communication skills regardless of in office or remote will tank a project and if systemic, a company

Re: The ADHD body double: A unique tool for getting things done

#166

Post by wpm »

kristianp wrote: post #65
onemoresoop wrote: post #32

I may have ADHD, I never went for a diagnosis and found body doubling useful at times, especially when I was in school some decades ago, back then I had no name for it. However, I find white noise very helpful with staying on the task and with increased focus. My company moved, about a year ago, into a very cramped office that is also extremely noisy. This exasperated me, I would get drained of energy in a couple of…

What do you do about notifications from Slack/Emails/Teams messages?

I have my notifications for Slack and Outlook turned off. I get a Dock tile badge, and Slack does ping my wrist via smartwatch, but not much else. Most emails I get are not vitally important, nor do most of the things I get on Slack immediately required reading or actionable.

Re: The ADHD body double: A unique tool for getting things done

#167

Post by Teleoflexuous »

deinonychus wrote: post #158
Teleoflexuous wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I come to shill my webapp for background noise because it has a twist not appearing in anyone's recommendations. Whenever I'm switching between tasks (thinking vs reading vs writing) I'd either turn the sound off or on, given I needed more or less attention at the moment. Minor problem with that was that sometimes unexpectedly I'd stick with the new task longer than expected, start to get bored, but w/e background so…

Interesting. I'm surprised how much I enjoyed the Human playlist, especially the High setting with those percussive sounds that were quite grating at first. I could easily see myself getting in a productive trance to that. It reminded me of why I like techno, drone, and ambient music. I'm surprised how well BPM Forest worked too. Imo it could use some variety in kicks and longer forest/rain loops.

Thanks for checking it out. It could definitely use larger library of sounds in general.

Ideally, I'd like to allow sharing and storing of presets, but it was simply out of scope for the PoC - the functionality is there in the desktop version btw, but it on the other hand asks users to download an unknown .exe and then share mp3 and json files with each other, putting us firmly in the mid-90s'.

Re: The ADHD body double: A unique tool for getting things done

#168

Post by deinonychus »

asar wrote: post #89

Really interesting method. I've been calling a similar strategy the library effect. Whenever I work in an environment where other people are productive (or at least look productive) I can focus much better and get in the zone. It's now gotten to a point where I'm actively seeking desks with my screen exposed to the room, so people would be able to see me procrastinate, guilt tripping me to limit this sort of behavior…

> It's now gotten to a point where I'm actively seeking desks with my screen exposed to the room, so people would be able to see me procrastinate, guilt tripping me to limit this sort of behavior.

I have this same brain. Working in public at a coffee shop is a great baseline, but it's even better if I can feel the social pressure to not fuck off even if it's made up by my own neurotic head. It's a crazy double-edged sword to wield. Really useful, but I think it heightens burnout and I can't stand to stay in the same place for long due to the palpable buildup of pressure to Go Home.

Re: The ADHD body double: A unique tool for getting things done

#170

Post by mcharawi »

lemming wrote: post #6

An online application of this principle is Focusmate, where you schedule calls with essentially random strangers and just work together. There's very little chit chat and it's not some weird front for a hookup scheme. I've been amazed at how well it works for me. I can't really explain why, after all the other person can't see my screen so I could just be doom scrolling YouTube the whole time, but for some reason I d…

I used https://www.flow.club/ which i found very helpful, they do small groups rather than one on one, and you can sign up ahead of time or join spontaneously
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