Ah, work from home. After a year of video calls and hyper-scheduled days, has your workflow grown a little stale? You’re not alone. From Zoom anxiety to deciphering if you this should actually be a meeting, collaborating virtually can become draining. It’s never too late for an upgrade: There are a few tips and tricks to keep you from dreading video calls and make your work days run smoother. We’ve pulled a few pieces of advice and tools to help you work better.
Tired of looking at yourself on video calls? If work requires you to show your face, try turning off “self view.” Zoom introduced this feature in 2020 to help prevent “cognitive load” in users. It’s easy—Hover your mouse over your video, click the ellipses button, choose “Hide Self View,” and you’re done! Currently this feature is only built into Zoom, and not Microsoft Teams.
After a year at home, grooming and beauty routines have faltered. If you want a boost with minimal effort, try Zoom’s Studio Effects. The filters were announced in September 2020, but many people are just discovering it—and who doesn’t love a good filter? Simply go to Video Settings, select Background & Filters, and click Studio Effects (Beta) in lower right-hand corner of your screen. From there, spruce up all you need. Maybe pull out the filters to liven up your next virtual game night.
Could this have been an email? We’ll do you one better—it can be a video. Run a design concept by your partners or align your team easily by recording a video of your screen. Softwares like Loom or CloudApp make it easy. Just hit record to capture your screen with your voice and face, and annotate to your heart’s desire.
Need a bigger overhaul? Explore Digital Wellbeing Experiments, a 2020 Webby-honored collection of ideas that can help you find a better balance with technology. From printable paper phones to tips on helping you only use essential apps, there are a lot of tools or tips that can revamp how you spend your time online.
