If you’re working from home these days, you may find yourself in a lot more virtual meetings – which can be exhausting.
“When you go from meeting, to meeting, to meeting, you don’t have a break in between, said Jane Pernotto-Ehrman, a behavioral health specialist with Cleveland Clinic. “If I were the meeting organizer queen, I would say, meetings begin on the hour and they end at 55 minutes.”
Pernotto-Ehrman recommends scheduling a five-minute break between calls, to allow yourself and others to gather their thoughts.
She said meeting virtually can be tough for some people to get used to.
Meeting attendees no longer have that same kind of human interaction and may not be getting as many breaks as before.
She said it’s important for employers to give their staff some time to decompress during the day, even if it’s just five minutes to step outside, or grab a snack.
She reminds us not to feel bad if we’re not absorbing as much information, or not being as productive because many people are struggling with the same issues.
During this difficult time, she said, we all need to have compassion – and a sense of humor doesn’t hurt either.
“We’re all just trying to move through this the best we can,” said Pernotto-Ehrman. “Try not to be so rigid about perfection and enjoy it, this is a way we get to connect and be with each other, otherwise we’d really be stuck.”
Pernotto-Ehrman also recommends switching the view of your virtual meetings to ‘speaker view’ because that way you stay focused on the speaker, who deserves your attention.