In 2016, when I was a sophomore in high school, I took an economics class over the summer. The class was offered in what was, at that point, a revolutionary new format: online.
As part of that class, I had to connect with my teacher using this fancy new virtual meeting platform called Zoom. What I, and many others, didn’t know at the time was how big virtual meetings were going to become.
Now, I have a meeting over Zoom or other virtual meeting platforms practically every day. But what I quickly discovered is that Zoom meetings, and really any meetings held on a regular basis during the workday, can quickly drain my social battery. Having to constantly be engaged (or at least look engaged) in discussions and brainstorming sessions can become exhausting very quickly.
As a disclaimer, I’m not referring to large-scale company meetings, corporate events, tradeshows or conventions, but the daily meetings that many planners often still have to participate in when planning those large-scale gatherings. Things like staff meetings, department calls and one-on-one check-ins can quickly fill up your work calendar and make it hard to get anything done.
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I wanted to know: Why do daily meetings, both virtual and in-person, make us so tired? What strategies are there to boost our recovery efforts so we can still be productive in between the onslaught of meeting invites and calls? And what lessons can we learn for how to boost productivity in our day-to-day work that we can apply to make large-scale meetings more productive, restful and impactful for attendees?
Here’s what I learned.
Too Many Meetings!
According to a study from the web conferencing company Webex, 93% of workers spend more than two hours a day in video meetings, and data from Microsoft says some Teams users are spending up to eight hours or more per week on Teams calls alone. While many of us might assume that the amount of virtual or hybrid meetings we attend has gone down since the height of the pandemic, it seems as though the opposite is true.
According to Harvard Business Review, employees attended an average of 8.3 meetings per week in 2021. In 2023, employees attended an average of 10.1 meetings per week, and while that number decreased slightly from 10.3 in 2022, it’s clear that the onslaught of daily meetings and video calls is not going to drastically decrease anytime soon.
Three out of four workers say meetings have either increased since 2021 (46%) or stayed the same (30%), according to a 2023 study from Virtira. That increase in meetings was the No. 1 cause of fatigue for nearly two out of three workers surveyed.
What Is ‘Meeting Fatigue?’
The term often used to describe the feeling of being overwhelmed from excessive, overly long or unnecessary amounts of meetings is, aptly, "meeting fatigue."
According to Webex, 95% of workers say they experience "video meeting fatigue" and over 30% say they experienced symptoms such as aches and pains, blurry vision, headaches and eye strain, while nearly 40% report neck and shoulder strain.
Too many meetings can also have an impact on mental health as well as workers’ physical well-being. According to Virtira, 51% of workers reported feeling anxious by being on camera during meetings, and a study from Stanford revealed that too many online meetings can increase stress and cognitive load.
This can lead to an overall feeling of exhaustion and fatigue, and when people are too tired from meetings, they oftentimes don’t have the energy to do the actual work that’s assigned to them every day, leading to people working longer hours with shorter breaks and increasing feelings of burnout.
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How to Reduce Meeting Fatigue
While you may not be able to reduce the number of meetings you have every day, there are multiple techniques, exercises and practices you can implement to help you relax and recharge in between calls.
Sepideh Eivazi, founder of Dawn of the Earth and a former corporate event planner and hotelier, recommends trying a simple breathing exercise in between meetings that takes less than a minute:
- Take a double inhale through your nose by taking a deep breath, holding it for a bit, and then taking another deep breath to completely fill your lungs.
- After the second breath, hold until you count to five.
- Then, exhale through your mouth until you empty your lungs, like a big sigh.
Eivazi also recommends letting go of any tension during the exercise, especially in the shoulders, as when people are experiencing stress and anxiety, they will often carry those emotions in their chest, shoulders or back.
She said utilizing scent therapy and essential oils can help calm down our central nervous systems during periods of highstress. Consider scents such as lavender, which studies suggest have mood stabilization and neuroprotective properties.
"If there is a specific scent that you like, such as lavender or eucalyptus, I make these lavender bags that people can put on their desk that they can use when they feel anxiety," Eivazi said. "Lavender has this property that can help people to regulate their nervous system and calm them."
Eivazi shared a host of other strategies and tips people can use when slammed with back-to-back meetings:
- Make sure you are hydrated and take breaks to drink water, or get water to bring into your next meeting.
- Go outside to stand in the sun to regulate your circadian rhythm (especially during winter months).
- Listen to soothing music or a relaxing guided meditation.
- Take short walks or move your body between meetings.
Lee Papa, a wellness expert, speaker and author, also gave some recommendations for simple things you can do to help prevent meeting fatigue:
Practice Meditation: "This recommendation not only reenergizes a person, soothes anxiety and makes one more productive, but it has nothing to do with ‘doing’ anything," Papa said. "And that is difficult for many. It is about learning to be in the silence."
The Pomodoro Technique: This time-management method splits your work into 25-minute intervals separated by short five-minute breaks. Proponents of the technique claim it improves focus, helps minimize distractions and prevents burnout.
Get Outside: "Step away from the desk and computer," Papa said. "Stretch, breathe, take a deep breath, walk around the block in silence. If you are on one meeting after another and don’t get up and walk or go outside and get in nature, or take a deep breath and try to ground yourself and get connected to something deeper, then you are going to add another layer of stress to your body."
The strategies outlined by Eivazi and Papa can be done from either home or the office and are quick and easy methods that can help you feel more relaxed by resting and recharging before your next meeting.
