Clients tell us they are doing more meetings than ever before. They are no longer traveling, so are available for back to back Zoom meetings. The problem is doing that many virtual calls is exhausting.
Here’s why:
Zoom meetings do not give your brain as much information as in-person meetings. You see faces and restricted body language, so your brain can’t get the full picture, which raises concerns, and puts it on edge.
Secondly, you have lots of eyes looking at you. This attention troubles your Amygdala, the reptilian part of your brain, which controls your fight, flight, freeze response, which puts you in a heightened sense of alert, which is just not relaxing.
Two things you can do to have better Zoom calls
1. Select “Speaker View”
When you select the Speaker, the face of the person talking will fill the screen. The Speaker view makes Zoom calls feel more like regular conversations and will feel less stressful.
2. Hide self-view: People tell me they spend a lot of time looking at themselves during calls. There seems to be a level of narcissism that is hard to avoid. Probably the same reason that when Google Earth came out, and we could look at anywhere in the world, we all looked at our own house first. I find it distracting to look at myself, so I recommend you turn off self-view, and I think it will make you a more focused listener.
Good luck
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