Hey there! We live in such a technology driven world. We are constantly sitting down and staring at screens, and that can be exhausting! In this blog, I want to line out 8 tips to help you conquer that exhaustion you feel when you’re in and out of online meetings all day and working on your devices.

1. This first tip is something you can do right now no matter what! Turn your devices onto night mode. This blocks blue light! Most devices have an option for night mode in settings, but if you device does not, you can use f.lux, which is available on iOS devices. The biggest issue I have with this one is it replaces the blue light with an orange tone and it can be a little weird to look at. If you don’t like this, you can always get blue light blocking glasses!

2. This one is related to the first. Turn your devices onto dark theme or dark mode and turn your brightness down. This makes the screen a little darker and makes white spaces black. Tips one and two definitely help with eye strain! I get headaches from working all day, and these two things have helped me tremendously. Just make sure you don’t turn it too dark! Make sure you can still see the screen.

3. Schedule regular breaks. If you can’t do that, make sure you don’t schedule more than 2-3 hours of online meetings in a row. One way to do this is by setting a hard boundary with lunchtime. I don’t look at my screen (not even my phone!) during lunch time, so I take that whole hour away from screen time. I also schedule 15 minutes in between all of my online meetings to prep for my next meeting and take some time away from looking at the screen. Most scheduling apps will even let you add a buffer, so no meetings can be scheduled one after the next.

4. Get up! Get yourself out of your chair and get moving. I spend all day in consultations and music lessons, so by the end of the day I can definitely start to get exhausted. I like to turn my camera off for a moment during music lessons while my students are playing their songs to stand up and stretch my muscles. My students don’t even always realize that my camera was off! This is the perfect tactic to get some blood flowing and keep your muscles from getting too sore throughout the day.

5. Get a comfortable chair. A lot of people were forced into working from home this year, and don’t have an office chair or gamer chair that was created to sit in for long periods of time. Getting a comfortable chair will help keep your back out of pain, and you’ll be less sore and exhausted by the end of the day.

6. Close your eyes when you can. When you are in meetings, the attention is off you, and you don’t need to see a presentation, close your eyes. Eye strain is a huge perpetrator of exhaustion from electronics.

7. Talk less, smile more. I am obsessed with the musical Hamilton! My obsession might border on unhealthy, but I must admit, Aaron Burr gave some pretty good advice when he told Alexander Hamilton to talk less and smile more. Let everyone else do all the talking. Keep your talking points short and succinct, and ask more questions than you answer if possible.

8. Have all meeting materials ready at the beginning of the day. The more you have ready in the morning, the less you have to get ready throughout the day. If you have the materials ready for all your meetings at the beginning of the day, you will be able to take full advantage of the breaks you have scheduled into your day!

I hope these tips help you! I would love to hear which tip was your favorite and which one helped you the most. Comment below or send an email to rlaci@lacimusicstudio.com