Reduce screen information, avoid multitasking, and take regular breaks: Here are some tips to reduce video conference stress
With telecommuting, video conferencing meetings have become the closest possible means of communication for face-to-face interactions. But they can get tired quickly, especially when you have to manage a family and day job from home.
In partnership with Brut, Cognitive Psychologist Paul Brazzolotto offers three tips for treating mental fatigue from videoconferencing.
Reduce the information your brain captures
During the multi-party video conference, you will find yourself in front of other screens. Your brain then receives a lot of information to process and it will be tested. Paul Brazzoluto explains: “Even if you are not aware of it, he will treat all these faces and try to understand them.”
Unlike a face-to-face interaction, you will also encounter your own image, and as a natural reaction, you will tend to be in control of it.
To avoid this information overload, the researcher recommends limiting as much as possible the visual screens on your computer to keep only the screen of the interlocutor speaking, in addition to suppressing your camera’s comments.
Non “multitasking”
“It’s easy to start a videoconference and be tempted to do a lot of things at the same time because you can control the picture that sends it back,” Paul Prazolotto knows.
However, the brain is really unable to handle this situation. Even if this can give the impression of improving your work time, the brain is forced to juggle between the two activities, which leads to a feeling of greater fatigue later on.
Paul Brazzolotto also insists that regular breaks should be taken, even if it’s only five minutes, in order to regain resources and avoid mental fatigue.
