Video calls are a great way to communicate with distant co-workers and loved ones. If you’re reading this, it’s because you’re trying to improve your focus to be more productive in your daily life. Unfortunately, staying focused is a skill that can be easily lost when you’re in a rush or distracted by other things.
But what’s the best way to stay focused when in a remote video call? There are a number of ways to keep your mind on the video call and not on anything else. Today we’re going to share our top tips to keep you focused during a video call.
Tell Your Friends That You Are Unavailable
There are many people nowadays who like to use video calls. However, if you’re like me, you’ve noticed that sometimes you’re really busy and you don’t want to make an appointment with your friends or colleagues for a video call. You don’t want them to expect to see you, you don’t want to spend extra time making sure they can meet you, and you don’t want to be rude to them.
If you’re investing time and effort into building out a remote team, you’d naturally hope that the team members would stick to their tasks and goals, and not slack off or waste time on unimportant matters. And yet, the fact is that remote working is an inherently difficult task: we humans struggle to focus and we often struggle even more when we’re faced with distractions and interruptions.
Create A Distraction Free Work Space
Video calls have become a huge part of communication, but they can also be a distraction. Making video calls is a great way to stay in touch with your colleagues, but what about how you stay focused during a call?
An important part of your work is done online, but sometimes it can be distracting if coworkers are around. One easy way to avoid distractions is to work at home, where you can set up your home office with the right tools. A great place to start is with earplugs, which can be worn while working on important projects so you can stay focused on the task at hand.
Make Sure That You Are Alert
It’s easy to get distracted during a video call. You may see the person across the line looking at his phone, or maybe he wonders why you are staring at him. Soon enough you will both get tired of the video call and feel disappointed. Or what if you are the one who is distracted? Perhaps you even doze off?
One of the most common ways for remote workers to stay productive is by setting up a video conference call with a coworker—but, the downside of this is that if you’re not paying attention to the meeting, you’ll miss important details and important information that can be invaluable to you. So, if you’re working on a project that requires a lot of focused attention, you’ll want to set up a video conference call with your coworker early in the process, so you can both be sure you’re paying attention to the meeting.
When conducting a phone conversation, it is important that you stay focused on the conversation. If you do not, you will miss what is being said and this will lead to a loss of interest and focus during the call.
Keep Your Desk Cleaned And Organized
Being a remote worker can be a lot of fun, but there are a limited number of places where you can work from. The productivity you get from your computer is directly proportional to how well your workspace is organized—and that includes your desk, too. If you work from home, make sure to keep your desk clutter-free and tidy all the time.
If you want to run an efficient remote team, you need to make sure your team is keeping their workspace free of clutter and distractions to keep everyone focused and productive.
Have A Plan To Get Work Done
When you think about it, the most distracting thing during a video conference is not the person on the other end of the call, but the internet connection itself. All of our devices are designed to connect to the internet at all times, no matter what we’re doing.
And the internet slows down when the device is asleep, which means that even when you’re on a call, there’s always something that can keep you from doing your work. So while you’re busy surfing or watching videos while on a call, you’re not getting any work done.
Limit Distractions During Call
The ability to stay focused during a video call is one of the skills that every remote worker needs to possess. It is often easier to do when you know that the work will be done in a timely manner. If you have a difficult time staying focused during a video call, you may try to limit the distractions by turning off your phone or isolate yourself into a quiet room during the call.
Turn Off Your Phone
Many people find themselves sitting in an uncomfortable position while sitting in front of their computer. It’s easy to get distracted by the light coming through the window, the clock ticking away on the wall, the cat staring at you, or your favorite TV show playing in the background. The result? Most people distracted by their phone notification during the calls. It’s good to turn off your phone or enable airplane mode during the call to avoid distraction.
Turn Off Notifications
Many people like to be notified of incoming calls and text messages. Whether you’re at work, school, or on vacation, you might want to turn those notifications back on. Mobile phones can be very distracting. With so many apps, notifications, and notifications within apps, it can be hard to stay focused.
Go Full Screen
If you’re in an in-person meeting or video call, the screen in front of you is probably in full-screen mode. This is great in most cases, but when you’re in a remote work context, this means you’re seeing the full screen of the remote user’s monitor. This is particularly problematic when the remote user is in a conversation, so they don’t see the conversation or have to turn around to see what you are typing. But if you want to focus on the call, it’s recommend you to go full-screen mode.
Use Headphone
Many people use earphones, especially during a planned video chat to avoid any distractions from the noise surrounded by you.