Body doubling for studying: library rules
Libraries are body doubling that already exists.
The short version: try one today
- Sit where you can see others working.
- Bring only what you need for one subject.
- Leave when your planned block ends.
Nobody around to work with? Priori has body doubling sessions built in. (We make it. It's free to download.)
Libraries are body doubling that already exists. Nobody had to organise it, nobody needs a link, and nobody will ask how your week was. If you want to try body doubling for studying without the awkwardness of asking a friend, a library is the lowest-effort place to begin.
It only works if you use it well, though. Plenty of us have spent four hours in a library and left with one highlighted sentence and strong opinions about a stranger's laptop stickers. Three rules fix most of that.
Rule one: sit where you can see others working
The quiet solo booth looks like the serious choice. For an ADHD brain it is often the worst seat in the building, because once you are hidden, nothing stops the phone coming out. Pick a shared table or a row of desks where you can see heads down and pens moving.
Other people working is the cue. You glance up, see someone writing, and your brain gets a nudge that this is what happens here. Being slightly visible helps too. It is harder to watch videos for an hour when the person opposite can see your screen glow.
Avoid seats facing the entrance. Every person who walks in becomes a small event, and you will end up people-watching. If your friends always colonise one table and it turns into a chat, sit a few rows away and meet them for the break.
Rule two: one subject in the bag
Say you have a 9am lecture and then a free block until 1pm. The tempting plan is to bring everything: the statistics problem set, the essay reading, the lab write-up. Then you spend the first forty minutes deciding which to start, begin all three and finish none.
Bring only what you need for one subject. With one thing on the table, the choice is already made. Write the goal on a sticky note before you leave home, something like 'questions 1 to 4' or 'read chapter and make ten notes', and put it where you can see it.
- Laptop or notebook, and the one textbook or reading you need.
- Headphones, water and a snack so hunger does not send you wandering.
- Phone on silent, zipped into the bag, not face down on the desk.
- A scrap of paper for stray thoughts, so 'email landlord' has somewhere to go that is not a new tab.
Rule three: leave when your planned block ends
Deciding to stay 'until it is done' sounds dedicated. In practice it gives your brain no edges, and time blindness fills the gap. With all day available, the first two hours feel free, so they disappear.
Decide the block before you sit down, perhaps ninety minutes with a short break in the middle, and set a vibrating alarm. If you like shorter rounds inside that, an adjusted Pomodoro works well at a library desk. When the alarm goes, write down the very next step, pack up and go.
Leaving on time, even mid-flow, teaches you that library sessions end. That makes tomorrow's far easier to start. Many women with ADHD lean towards perfectionism here and feel guilty leaving anything unfinished. A session with an end you actually keep will do more for you over a term than one heroic eight-hour stint.
Body doubling for studying when the library is shut
Libraries close, get too hot, or are a bus ride away on a day when you cannot face the bus. The same three rules travel. A café table, a campus study room or a kitchen where a flatmate is working can all do the job.
At midnight in your room, a study with me video gives you a version of the same cue: someone visibly working while you work. Keep the one-subject rule and the fixed end time, and it still counts as a library session. Just with worse chairs.
Quick questions
Is studying in a library a form of body doubling?
Yes, in practice. Body doubling means working in the presence of other people, and a library gives you a room full of them without any organising. It tends to work best if you sit where you can actually see others working.
Where should I sit in the library if I have ADHD?
Try a shared table or open row of desks where other people are visibly studying, away from the entrance and from friends who will want to chat. If it does not help, move, because the right seat is different for everyone and worth a little experimenting.