5 Ways to Make Video Calls Less Exhausting

Video calls can be tiring. The slight delay makes picking up on normal conversational clues harder. When there’s a small pause in conversation, we become worried there’s a technology problem. Virtual backgrounds make people look weird and pixel-y. Many of us spend these 45-60-minute chunks with the background thought track of “I really, really, really hope my kids don’t start screaming.” 

 The world is facing an uphill battle of “Zoom fatigue.”

To navigate the continual changes of a mid-pandemic world, it’s important that zoom calls, especially the calls with our own teams, fuel us with energy, instead of leaving us feeling drained.

I’ve worked from home (at least partially) for the last decade. While I’m certainly a work in progress, I’ve found a few ways to days of video calls less draining:

First, don’t have so many

Some of the technological challenges (see above) are inevitable. No ‘work from home hack’ will prevent you from experiencing technology delays that make your brain work harder. If you spend 9 concurrent hours on video calls, you will feel exhausted. If you do that every day, you will burn out. 

Reserve video calls for the most collaborative, iterative, emotional conversations. Make sure you have breaks in between, to relax your face and move your body.

Change your environment.

Seeing the same thing over and over again makes your brain tired. There’s nothing new to process, so we go into autopilot. Every call starts to feel like ground hog’s day.

Changing up your environment not only helps you feel more awake but it also gives everyone else on the call something new to look at. Even if it’s just a different color wall or a new corner of your living room, the small visual cues make a big impact on attention levels.   

Default to “gallery view”

In a video call, gallery view enables everyone on the call to be seen in even squares, versus speaker view, which makes the speaker bigger and everyone else smaller, constantly switching back and forth based on who is talking.

In in-person meetings, people don’t become larger and smaller based on who is talking. And during those meetings, our eyes don’t have to constantly adjust to new visuals every few seconds. The view is more static, enabling everyone to focus on the content of the conversation and look around the room naturally, versus being forced to look at John on the big screen because he accidentally sneezed, making him the “speaker.”

Switching to gallery view is more restful for your eyes and lays the groundwork for a more “normal” collaborative discussion.

Remove the expectation for perfection

Yes, you should ideally have pants on, but the expectations of a perfectly staged background and heaven forbid someone hear a doorbell are what contribute to exhaustion.

Many of us used to hide that we are working from home. A decade ago, it was next to embarrassing to admit that you were working from home. Almost like it made your work somehow less important.

Now, that’s not the case. Embrace it. Ask yourself, if you were on a zoom meeting with someone on your team, or even a friendly customer, would your opinion of them change 180 degrees to the worse if you heard their dog bark? What about if you saw their spouse walk behind them? Of course not, that would be ridiculous. Don’t put too much pressure on yourself to have the most perfect Zoom setting for 8 hours a day.

Lastly, don’t skip the personal updates.

Most meetings, especially with familiar people, start with some form of niceties. Virtual meetings should be no different. In fact, they’re an opportunity to give more flavor to the routine ‘how are you’ ‘busy’ introduction. Don’t be afraid to show off that DIY attempt or give the group a laugh with your rather flat homemade sourdough.

Leverage this new environment to forge even closer relationships with your teams and customers.

Virtual meetings present some new challenges but they don’t have to suck the energy out of you. Be intentional about your space and set yourself up for success in the way you engage with your team.