Microsoft research says you need more breaks between Zoom meetings

Back-to-back meetings were never fun in-person — and they certainly haven’t been any better virtually during the pandemic.

With Zoom fatigue on the rise, perhaps it’s worth considering micro-breaks between meetings. Microsoft released new data that shows how breaking up back-to-back meetings — even for five or 10 minutes in-between — can reduce stress levels and allow employees to remain focused and engaged.

Fourteen people were asked to take part in video meetings while wearing electroencephalogram equipment (EEG), which measured electrical activity in their brains. Volunteers participated in two different sessions of meetings. On day one, they attended periods of four half-hour meetings that ran consecutively.

These meetings focused on different tasks — from designing an office layout, or creating a marketing plan. The second trial repeated the meeting schedule — four half-hour meetings — but 10-minute breaks were spread within them, while participants were asked to partake in meditation using Headspace during the breaks.

“In today’s world of remote and hybrid work, it’s not sufficient to only encourage self-care,” Kathleen Hogan, chief people officer at Microsoft, said. “We need to innovate and leverage technology to help employees operationalize much-needed breaks into their daily routines.”

The main breakaways

Prior research has yielded results to back the study’s claim — that consecutive meetings can cause stress to accumulate. However, when given the chance to take a break, respondents’ beta waves — often associated with stress — dropped, allowing for a recharge.

Secondly, breaks actually allowed the brain to work differently. Researchers said that when participants meditated during breaks, brainwave patterns showed “positive levels of frontal alpha asymmetry,” a fancy way of saying participants are more engaged after. When they are bouncing from meeting-to-meeting, the levels were negative — making it harder to stay focused and engaged.

The final takeaway to consider is the strenuous toll that comes with transitioning meeting-to-meeting. Often, meetings tend to branch out to multiple topics which can cause stress levels to spike.

For participants, beta wave activity once again spiked when having to settle into a new meeting, but when breaks were considered, the activity dropped and made the experience easier on the head.

How to combat Zoom fatigue

The reason why Zoom fatigue is burning out employees relies on how much face-time is too much face-time. The excessive amount of close-eye contact can come unnatural due to computers being right in front of employees’ faces — and with everyone staring at you, it can be difficult to look past that.

Researchers from the current study said think of viewing your workday as a marathon, not a sprint. Taking short breaks, like shown above, can help reduce stress and keep you more engaged. That means your productivity will benefit as well.

Whether that’s through scheduling breaks in your day automatically, or just taking 10 minutes to disconnect, take a step away from remote work can help your wellbeing and not make you feel trapped. Michael Bohan, the senior director of human factors engineering at Microsoft, said even turning to a book can benefit during your breaks.

“My team has run studies in our lab that show when you read, it calms your mind and allows you to think more clearly,” said Bohan. “It engages and integrates more areas of your brain in a different way. You can think of it as sort of a warm up or a boost for your brain. So, have a book on your desk, and when you have a break, read for five or ten minutes. You’ll get more reading in and feel less stressed.”