Wear Your Pants, Even in Virtual Meetings!
![Wear Your Pants, Even in Virtual Meetings! Wear Your Pants, Even in Virtual Meetings!](https://fearlessprojectmanagement.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/laptop-dog-woman-cavalier-thumbnail-250x167.jpg)
5 Ways to Avoid Mental Fatigue in Virtual Meetings
Virtual meetings have become so common that many companies are permanently changing travel policies and conducting job interviews over the wire. We even have a new term for it, “Zoom Fatigue”.
But it doesn’t matter which technology is being used, if people spend most of their time connecting with other people in virtual meetings, they are more tired than if they went into the office and attended all these meetings together, face-to-face.
Why are virtual meetings so exhausting?
As humans, we are wired to connect so we unconsciously pick up on other peoples’ states by reading body language, listening to voice patterns, and noticing shifts in behavior, even subtle ones. All that happens in our old brain and it is lightning fast.
![online-meeting-5183791_1280 Our new brain, the neocortex, is where thinking happens. This is where we objectify the emotional states of other people so we can communicate. Even if you have a genius level IQ, your thinking brain responds slower than your old, lizard brain. In virtual meetings, we don’t have all the information we are used to in face to face meetings. Most of the information we need to communicate is restricted to a video screen and voice. And, when there are multiple people in the meeting, it puts tremendous load on our thinking brain.](https://fearlessprojectmanagement.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/online-meeting-5183791_1280.jpg)
In virtual meetings, we don’t have all the information we are used to in face to face meetings. Most of the information we need to communicate is restricted to a video screen and voice. And, when there are multiple people in the meeting, it puts tremendous load on our thinking brain.
Five Ways to Reduce Virtual Meeting Fatigue
Here are five easy ways to reduce cognitive overload in virtual meetings?
- Just say no. Decide if you really need to attend yet another virtual meeting. You may be able to get the information you need with a phone call, IM or text message.
Pick up the phone, instead.
- Schedule meetings in advance. If you are working from home, you may feel justified in setting up regular meetings “just to connect”. If these meetings are sandwiched between working meetings, they contribute to lower productivity from then entire team.
Make sure your meetings have a purpose, an agenda, and everyone who is invited needs to be there.
- Schedule regular meetings for 50 minutes. In most companies, meetings are scheduled every hour, on the hour. People don’t have time to get coffee (or make a pot), refill water, or take bio-breaks. If they need to be in the meeting and leave to take a much-needed break, they lose important information. Or people have to repeat, causing frustration and increasing stress levels.
If your culture has fallen into the trap of meetings every hour, on the hour, change the culture for your team. Give your people time to refresh (and get prepared) before the next meeting.
![conference-1886117_1280 For meetings that are 90 minutes or more, take a stretch and bio-breaks every 45 minutes. Most people stop thinking clearly when glued to their chair. With the amount of cognitive effort required to focus in virtual meetings, by the end of an hour, your people are gone... mentally, anyway. When people come back after a scheduled break, do a quick summary before continuing. If people are working from home, they have probably done some non-work-related tasks that took their mind far, far, away from the meeting objectives. Summarizing will get everyone back on track.](https://fearlessprojectmanagement.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/conference-1886117_1280.jpg)
- For meetings that are 90 minutes or more, take a stretch and bio-breaks every 45 minutes. Most people stop thinking clearly when glued to their chair. With the amount of cognitive effort required to focus in virtual meetings, by the end of an hour, your people are gone… mentally, anyway.
- When people come back after a scheduled break, do a quick summary before continuing. If people are working from home, they have probably done some non-work-related tasks that took their mind far, far, away from the meeting objectives. Summarizing will get everyone back on track.
Wear your Pants
Recently, I had the opportunity to attend a virtual GSD (Get Stuff Done) meeting that was three hours long. Our stretch breaks were guided by a fitness guru and really helped to keep us focused. During one of these breaks, a friend shared this story.
![Socks Right after the COVID lockdown, my friend was in a virtual business meeting. The weather was between cold and warm so many participants were working in non-air-conditioned home offices. During a break with video on, everyone was asked to stand up and stretch. Unbeknownst to the other participants, one woman was dressed in business attire only on the top and not on the bottom. As stretching began, so did the private chats. “Are those peach-colored shorts or underwear?”, “Does she have pants on?” “No pants????” Much laughter ensued, which put everyone in a positive mood to get through the rest of the agenda. So, in virtual meetings, remember to wear your pants. Socks, not so much!](https://fearlessprojectmanagement.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Socks.jpg)