How are Back-to-Back Meetings Affecting Your Brain?

Meetings are draining your brain power

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Microsoft Reveals the Impact of Constant Meetings
CollaborationInsights

Published: April 27, 2021

Rebekah Carter - Writer

Rebekah Carter

How many back-to-back meetings do you have in a week?

For many, back-to-back meetings have become a standard part of the pandemic world. As soon as one meeting ends, you barely have time for a sip of water before another begins. Microsoft Teams, the solution behind many of those meetings, recently revealed some findings on how our everyday interactions are really affecting us.

According to the research, breaks are absolutely essential if we want to improve our ability to engage and focus in meetings. According to Jared Spataro, CVP of Microsoft 365, back-to-back meetings simply aren’t sustainable.

What the Research Found

Microsoft’s research revealed that breaks between meetings are essential in allowing the brain to reset and reduce the ongoing build-up of stress from one meeting to the next. Two straight hours of back-to-back meetings in a previous study showed beta waves (stress waves) increasing over time. However, when participants took a break, the waves reset.

Microsoft went on to note that when participants had meditation breaks between meetings, their brainwaves had better frontal alpha asymmetry. This basically means they were more engaged during the meeting.

Additionally, if being in a constant meeting wasn’t problematic enough, jumping between meetings can be a high source of stress too. Participants not taking breaks in Microsoft’s studies saw peaks in stress when they were moving between calls.

The takeaway, according to Microsoft, is that we all need to embed more breaks into our daily practices, particularly when it comes to meetings.

How Microsoft is Helping

To address the demand for breaks in the regular meeting environment, Microsoft has implemented settings in Outlook that allow companies and individuals alike to take five, ten, and fifteen minutes off Microsoft Teams meetings. The idea is that this will give people a chance to relax and decompress between meetings, rather than jumping between conversations.

For instance, you might decide to implement a five-minute break between each meeting, so set Outlook to only set meetings on five-past the hour. There’s an Outlook support page available that shows you how to set up the various settings from an individual perspective.

Outlook and Microsoft Teams are relied on by millions of people worldwide today. However, Microsoft believes it’s important for good meetings to be accompanied by good wellbeing. Aside from access to new Outlook scheduling features, Microsoft also introduced a personal wellbeing insights solution in Teams, which helps you to become aware of how you’re spending your time.

This environment, within the Microsoft Viva experience platform, intends to support employees in making better decisions about how to schedule their time, not just from a productivity perspective. Viva Insights will even be bringing Headspace meditation and mindfulness experiences into Teams, so you can disconnect from work better in the evenings, or just take a break between meetings.

 

 

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