Boosting video meeting productivity
Zoom fatigue is real. Yes, it’s true - the CEO of Zoom has it, and National Geographic says that it’s here to stay.
Despite our fatigue, video conferencing apps such as Zoom remain a big part of our lives. Sadly, it’s not a productive part.
Few would say we were truly productive in person, but the virtual revolution made it even worse.
As shown in this graphic, remote meetings generate fewer ideas, foster weaker relationships, and lead to inferior business outcomes.
How can we have productive video meetings?
Read on, Padawan.
1. Nail the Basics
Nothing like some good ol’ fundamentals to start you off right.
Productivity is impossible if you don’t intimately know the system you’re using.
Fully understanding how to use Zoom, Teams, Hangouts, or whatever tool you’re using to video conference is a major key to increasing productivity.
Knowing how to send, join, and leave a video meeting will change your life.
You also need to know how to use the microphone and the camera. Also, you should know how to interact via chat within the video meeting. Don’t forget to learn to share your screen, either.
The best way to learn this information is by visiting your respective video meeting company’s website.
Got all that? Learn to virtually raise your hand. This maintains order in a crowded meeting.
One last thing - figure out the best meeting etiquette for the situation.
Should everyone stay muted while one person is talking or should everyone stay unmuted? Should everyone keep their video on or just the speaker?
You’ll make the best decisions if you consider style of meeting, number of people involved, and what you hope to get out of it.
2. Set an agenda
Daniela Andreevska is the Marketing Director at Mashvisor. She suggests preparing, “not only the topics which you need to go over but also how long you plan to stay on each.”
By doing this, Andreevska says, you demonstrate the importance of each subject and the level of detail in which topics will be discussed.
Once the agenda is set, make sure you stick to the scheduled time.
Meeting fluff can kill your Zoom meeting's productivity. Keep reports succinct, and keep the focus on things that pertain to everyone as much as possible.
3. Eliminate distractions
A study from the University of California-Irvine uncovered the amount of time it takes to return to full focus after a distraction:
23 minutes and 15 seconds!
Something as simple as receiving a text could make you mentally miss entire video meetings.
Set your computer to ‘Do Not Disturb,’ turn off Slack, and avoid the urge to text or chat others during video meetings.
Try to find a peaceful place to have the meeting, and you’ll find that you retain more and connect more with other participants.
(pro-tip: away from your dogs)
4. Take Notes
There is a lot of research about the efficacy of taking notes.
Taking notes gives us better recall of the things that we wrote. We also tend to understand the concepts on a deeper level than if we just listened or read something.
Taking too many notes hurts your ability to focus on the meeting, but you’ll skip over important points if you’re not detailed.
Note-taking research from Harvard suggests that the main problem with transcribing meetings is that it takes your attention away from the speaker.
However, when you review transcriptions, it has a large memory benefit over regular notes.
Pickle uses AI technology to transcribe video meetings for you.
There are other tools out there for transcription, but ours takes it a step further - we give the the ability to take quick, time-stamped notes to reference the exact spot in the Zoom recording for context long after the meetings ended.
A tool like ours will revolutionize your video meeting's productivity.
It allows you to completely focus on the video meeting, without having to worry about missing anything.
Pure peace of mind.
If you don’t yet have access to a note-taking tool, we recommend taking quick notes by hand to improve your memory. This will serve your memory better than typing without augmented intelligence.
Pro-tip for paper notes: use the Cornell note-taking method, which helps you take quick, yet organized notes on paper.
5. Share Your Screen
Sharing your screen is another great way to avoid that pesky Zoom fatigue that we’ve all been feeling.
This was mentioned earlier, but deserves another round of applause.
Relying on a visual aid can be a real detractor to an in-person meeting, but it makes video meetings easier to pay attention to.
Utilizing this will boost your meeting engagement and improve your video meeting productivity.
6. Choose a Meeting Leader
It’s bad manners in person, but impossible in video meetings…
Everyone talking at the same time will kill your video meeting's productivity.
A meeting leader or administrator can guide the team through the agenda and keep things flowing.
The larger the meeting is, the more important this role becomes.
The leader is responsible for tasks.
Such as selecting speakers, answering questions in the chat, etc.
Picking a facilitator who is able to things moving without rushing the team is crucial.
Video Meeting Productivity: Keep it Simple
Productivity is about priorities, but it’s also about simplicity.
Don’t try to do everything, and don’t overthink it.
Execute these 6 strategies, and you’ll be fine!
