Pete Alexander explains why video calls exhaust us more than in-person meetings, citing research from Professor Jeremy Bailenson. He offers concrete fixes: shrink your meeting window, use an external keyboard, turn off video and move around, doodle to stay focused, and stop multitasking.
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Ever since the pandemic hit full force, many, if not most of us, have been spending a lot of time in online meetings from Zoom, Microsoft, Google, and many other platforms. And if you're like me, you've probably had the following thought: "Oh no, not another Zoom meeting." Why do we feel like that? Probably because it's not as natural as an in-person meeting. During an online meeting, you're staring at an electronic screen, focusing on slides that may or may not be dense. You're getting distracted by someone freezing or doing something odd in the video screen grid. And/or you are staring at yourself far more than you would ever in a non-online meeting day. Each of these instances can be tiring, but when combined together, it can lead to online burnout. Professor Jeremy Bailenson, founding director of the Stanford Virtual Human Interaction Lab, suggests the following ideas for helping to avoid online meeting burnout: Reduce the size of the meeting window to minimize face size. Consider using an external keyboard to give you more personal space from the screen. Turn off your video and stand or walk around to keep the blood flowing. Color or draw while the presenter speaks to help you keep your focus and also to reduce any unnecessary stress. In addition to these suggestions, I've also found that resisting the urge Not to multitask during an online meeting, such as checking your email, texts, Slack notifications, etc., also helps reduce stress. Do you have any additional ideas for avoiding online meeting burnout that you would like to share? Let me know and I'll add them to my blog post with your permission.
