{"id":1997,"date":"2020-12-29T07:00:37","date_gmt":"2020-12-29T07:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thenextweb.com\/?p=1331138"},"modified":"2020-12-29T07:00:37","modified_gmt":"2020-12-29T07:00:37","slug":"we-need-to-make-remote-meetings-more-boring-in-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/?p=1997","title":{"rendered":"We need to make remote meetings more boring in 2021"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It\u2019s been a tough year of pivoting, remote work, and conceptualizing the \u2018new normal.\u2019 But as we enter a new year, it\u2019s time to take stock of how we\u2019ve operated professionally and what we\u2019ll take with us into 2021.<\/p>\n

So when exactly was the last time life was good? Was it when you were huddled up with your coworkers by the watercooler or spending time with your loved ones? No, it was when you were watching The Office<\/em> \u2014 and therein lies our solution for next year.<\/p>\n

With new vaccines on the horizon, things are looking brighter and we\u2019ll probably be able to return to many of our pre-corona traditions. But despite that, the entrepreneurial and business communities seem obsessed with the idea that the \u2018new normal\u2019 is here to stay.<\/p>\n

But my problem with the \u2018new normal\u2019 is that it sounds too <\/em>perfect. Companies and startups are meant to open up to remote work completely, perfecting asynchronous work, and guaranteeing increased productivity with the flexibility to work during your personal \u2018peak performance\u2018 hours.<\/p>\n

All of this is missing an essential part of what makes a baseline, a sustainable \u2018normal\u2019: boredom.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re far from being perfect beings, so I believe we\u2019ll always need to work in some imperfections into our operations. Now how do we achieve that? By taking a page out of The Office<\/em> playbook.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

So here\u2019s my *fuego* take on how to make the \u2018new normal\u2019 work: make remote meetings even more boring<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Divisive and brave, I know. Not sure \u2018hero\u2019 is the right word to describe me, but I understand it comes to mind when you read this.<\/p>\n

Before I drop some knowledge on you, just let me be clear: I\u2019m not saying that endless Zoom calls aren\u2019t frustrating and awful, it\u2019s just that they don\u2019t reach peak boringness<\/em>, where its beauty is released. They\u2019re just half-assed boringness.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s all too easy to just turn off your camera, surf the web, check messages and tweets, and pretty much carry on with the mindless internet habits that you use to fill every other void in your life.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s wrong with that? Well, I\u2019ll tell you, we can veer off into deep existential dread because we\u2019re overly-stimulated, instead of embracing the meeting\u2019s banality. This isn\u2019t just me saying it, it\u2019s science<\/em> (probably).<\/p>\n

The Office<\/em> taught us that in-person meetings, however, prevent you from diverting straight into existential dread, because you\u2019re too occupied having the life sucked out of you in a stuffy meeting room. The camaraderie between you and your coworkers when you see the light in each other\u2019s eyes slowly extinguish in unison is the principle the modern world was built on\u2026<\/p>\n

And here\u2019s how you can capture that feeling: BEHOLD, THE BOUNCING DVD LOGO SITE<\/a>!<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Just like when The Office<\/em> gang obsessed over whether a DVD icon could hit the corner of the screen<\/a>, you can do the same in your next Zoom call with this neat little site<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As nerdy mathematicians have shown, the logo can actually<\/a> hit a corner<\/a> on DVD players. But what\u2019s tricky about the site is that you can adjust the size of the window yourself and the logo will change its bouncing accordingly \u2014 adding a whole new exciting layer to your boredom.<\/p>\n

Credit: Bill Green<\/a><\/figcaption>
<\/i><\/a>Nerd speak for bouncy logo stuff.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Now while most business leaders have tried to find new ways to make remote meetings more engaging \u2014 like always starting off with a collaborative video game<\/a> \u2014 I\u2019d like to argue my call for boringness also addresses engagement. You can\u2019t be bored if you\u2019re not fully engaged with how tedious something is, as any distraction would alleviate your boredom. Checkmate<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Having the hypnotizing DVD logo on next to the slides in a monotonous Zoom meeting hits the sweet spot of engagement and utter boredom. It gives you a certain sense of progression, while not taking away too much of your attention.<\/p>\n

I already tried the DVD logo out with a couple of my colleagues, and they claimed it had actually gone into the corner TWICE! Not saying they\u2019re liars, but I somehow missed it both times.<\/p>\n

So if you\u2019ll excuse me, I need to get back to monitoring my beautiful bouncing DVD logo. Let me know how your boring meetings go in 2021.<\/p>\n

The original version of this article appeared in our newsletter, Big Spam. Sign up here!<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Published December 29, 2020 \u2014 07:00 UTC <\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s been a tough year of pivoting, remote work, and conceptualizing the \u2018new normal.\u2019 But as we enter a new year, it\u2019s time to take stock of how we\u2019ve operated professionally and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1998,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1997"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1997"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1997\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}