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by Linda Anderson, M.A.
From my experience working as a coach with ADD adults, helping individuals to simplify, organize and stay on track, I've discovered many helpful tools. I've learned more than a few of these from my clients themselves. I'd like to share with you a concept, rather than a tool, which I find especially useful. I became aware of it when working with a client, whom I'll call David, and have since come to refer to it as the body double.
When I first met David, he was a retired vice president of a major corporation presently running three businesses out of his home-based office, two of them overseas. In observing him in his work space, I actually found him to be quite organized. He wasn't sitting eyeball high in papers, and he had many working systems in place.
David had been recently diagnosed with ADD, which explained to him his lifetime of difficulty accomplishing certain tasks that others seemed to handle easily. As a v.p. in the corporate world, he had an executive secretary to connect the dots and pull loose ends together. Now, that he had the time to do these tasks and the will to do them, he still couldn't keep on track. David's wife ran a business out of the home and had her own well organized office. She offered to advise him, but they both agreed that this just didn't work and that's when they asked for my help.
Together, David and I made certain changes in his storage systems to optimize access to needed items. We also discussed time management and prioritization systems which could work best for him in his business, but this still did not address the problem of attention and distraction. He explained that there were days when he would easily get off track and days when he would find it hard transitioning into the task at hand. Then, puzzled and somewhat embarrassed, he confessed, “You know, it seems that, sometimes, if I just have someone sitting in a chair nearby, even my wife, I can accomplish more than if I'm alone.” Simply having another human being sitting nearby, enabled him to stay on track.
David had identified something which I had been noticing before, when I sat as an organizational coach with other clients. In addition to being the coach , there were times when just being in proximity, not really advising or sorting, seemed to bring clarity and focus to the client. I felt it, and I knew the client felt it, too. What David first voiced out loud, I now refer to as the body double principle.
Why does a body double seem to work? There are at least a few possible explanations. At the simplest level a body double serves as a physical anchor for the distracted individual who feels more centered by the presence of another person in their space. They may feel both responsible to and for the anchor, which translates as, “I can't leave this place until I'm done” and, “my body double can't leave until I'm done.”
Another explanation, might be that the body double serves as a kind of mirror for the over-stressed mind and body - a reflection of how the distracted individual would like his or her energy to be at the moment. The body double thus becomes a model of control, and a mirror confidently reflecting back the message, “I can concentrate. I am working. I am focused.” Yet another explanation, in eastern cultures energy is referred to as chi (or qi) and is viewed as being either in or out of balance in the human body, as well as in the environment. Accupuncturists move chi to put the body back in balance. There are many forms of exercise and meditation, such as tai chi and chi gung, which are also about the management and movement of energy. And there is feng shui, (fung shway), the 5000 year old art of balancing positive and negative chi in the environment around us to promote optimal living conditions.
So, what exactly does chi have to do with a body double? The body double might serve as a chi balancer or barrier helping to contain the super-abundance of energy in the ADD brain and body from spilling out into the universe and nearby territories. The body double may also stand as a buffer against energy from the outside, ready to bombard the overly sensitive individual.
Whether you prefer the practical, psychological, or more meta-physical explanation for the effectiveness of the body double, consider it a gift from David and all of those individuals who have experienced what they, too, thought was a good idea. If a task at hand requires you and your attention, and seems impossible to complete, consider the possibility of beg, borrowing or paying for a body double to sit in the chair next to you.
Who and what should you look for in a body double? Find someone who can be fairly quiet. He or she can sit, read or write letters. They might even do some small task without interrupting you, because it requires energy to instruct, supervise or be interrupted by another person, and that expenditure of energy equates to distraction.
This is not to say that there is a definite time and need to hire outside help and delegate tasks to those assistants. There is such a time. I encouraged David to hire a student, housewife or fellow retired church member to sit and keep him company. We both agreed that his wife may not be the best person for the job but, perhaps, he could use her in a pinch. He did, in fact, in the months to follow, hire various short term office support persons, who served sometimes as body double, other times as office assistants. Knowing when to hire someone to help with the office work, or with just paying the bills at home, is yet another important tool for surviving some of the often ignored and highly stressful tasks in life.
The body double, at its simplest, is a chair holder, a space taker-upper, a karmic anchor, or a wedge between you and the door. Here's hoping this may be a useful tool in your magic bag of tricks to use at just the right time for getting a job done and for staying on track.
Linda Anderson, M.A. is a Coach and Professional Organizer in Doylestown, PA. http://www.gettingclear.com
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