November 5, 2024

Taylor Daily Press

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What happens to your brain when you have meetings all day?

What happens to your brain when you have meetings all day?


office job without it Meetings? You won’t find it. That’s the way they are. Part of the workHowever, this does not mean that it is fun to have a lot of meetings, especially if your day is full of meetings.



uninterrupted meetings

Not only does having too many meetings in a day make you feel exhausted, it often actually does. A study by researchers at Microsoft’s Human Factors Lab showed that your brain functions less well if you have too many meetings in a row, without taking a break.

The researchers asked 14 people to participate in video meetings while wearing special devices that tracked their brain activity. The people were divided into two groups. The first group of people had to attend four half-hour meetings, with no breaks. The second group also had to attend four half-hour meetings, but they were given a ten-minute break between each meeting. A week later, the same thing was done again, but the groups were switched.


What happened? When people didn’t have a break between meetings, their beta brain activity increased more with each successive meeting. Not good, because increased beta activity indicates increased stress levels. And it won’t come as a surprise that the participants’ mental engagement also decreased with each meeting. The screen measured negative frontal alpha asymmetry in these participants, suggesting that someone is mentally isolated. The opposite was true for people who took breaks. They measured positive frontal alpha asymmetry, which made them more able to engage in the meeting. And their stress levels didn’t increase any further.

Make the most of your vacation

Admittedly, Microsoft’s study wasn’t very large-scale, with only 14 people. The topic certainly needs more research, but based on the data, we daresay that taking a break is very important. Even if it’s just a minute. And then using it 100 percent.

“A lot of people check their email during meetings, as a kind of break, and I understand that, but it’s better not to do it during a break,” says the time management expert. Laura Vanderkam on HuffPost“It’s better to use those small chunks of time to do something you enjoy, like taking a ten-minute walk.”

Holistic Health Coach Rosie Acosta She recommends doing a relaxation technique during a break, inhaling for three seconds and exhaling for six seconds. “Just repeat that three to five times to make sure your body is releasing tension,” she says. Also important: Getting up regularly. “A lot of people sit in front of their computers all day. It’s good for your body to get up and stretch.”