Before I knew what it was called “body doubling”, I was using “study with me” videos on YouTube to help me study and write. I bought it in September 2024, not long after it was first released and I have almost used it every day since, whether for general focus or writing.

I love Spirit City. It perfectly intersects with many aspects of myself and so I find it incredibly fun and helpful to use. If you haven’t tried body-doubling before but it sounds interesting to you, start with some YouTube videos. There’s a lot of YouTubers doing it and so there’s a good diversity of aesthetics. For instance, I don’t like music in the background or talking but really like the sounds of pens, paper and rain. I also don’t watch cut videos, preferring real-time studying. Some of them use different angles too.

Here are some favourites that I’ve watched in the past to get you started:

Ray Hon

Ray Hon is my absolute favourite and it has a lot to do with relatability. She doesn’t use fancy notebooks and stationary and her desk is often covered in the “mess” of productivity. It’s less about aesthetics and more about getting work done in a practical manner; it’s always given me a “just do it” mentality and sets realistic expectations. Some people can get too caught up in trying to mimic aesthetics—I was one of them—and forget that videos are often production.

Merve

Merve is similar to Ray Hon but with really beautiful backdrops. It is definitely a lot neater and camera conscious but the raining and storm videos are so nice to have in the background whilst she works. I love the type of weather Scotland has an abundance of and so it also just suits me personally as ambiance.

A

A is one of the first “study with me” YouTubers that I ever started watching and I loved her little chats at the beginning and the quiet productive sessions in real time. She stopped uploading this content (I think when she graduated, I remember there being a bit of a brand shift but that seems to be gone also) but it was always like studying with a really nice roommate or classmate.

I’m one of those people who watch the same video over and over. Sometimes a particular video seems to really click with something in my brain. Before Spirit City, these were my top 5: and still are really.

Top 5

I actually had my ultimate favourite downloaded so I could use whenever my net was down—it would go down frequently when I was still a student—but it looks like it’s not on YouTube anymore. It was the only video I liked listening to the music of and I ended up using the selection in my own study playlist. The album is Iceland by Louie Zong. Unfortunately, I switched from Spotify to Tidal last year and it doesn’t appear to be on there.

There are heaps of YouTubers who create this kind of content, it’s just a matter of pairing yourself up with the right one for you.