CAN YOU HEAR ME?

The entire world has been affected by COVID-19. Old news now, I know. One of the resulting factors was huge loss of workforce which is extremely sad and I hope that they recover their jobs as soon as possible. For those lucky enough to continue to work, it meant working from home or working in different shift patterns or with limited access to offices.

The millions of office workers around the work that could work from home, made best use of their existing setup. A table, a laptop, a chair. That’s it.

After a few weeks in lockdown I, being one of those millions of people around the world have encountered a huge problem. I am now spending 6, 7, 8, sometimes more hours on conference calls or video conferences. The stress levels have quickly increased and anxiety quickly settled in.

Like many people I started quite positively, and created a routine that I was happy with. But as well as creating a bit of a tranquil and organised space for myself to work, I realised that there was something else missing. Why was I still getting stressed out? Why, despite my positive outlook, was I still feeling so tired at the end of each day? Why, despite the fact I was saving at least 4 hours a day in commute, was I still knackered, mentally more than physically? Yes, my previous job required me to drive at least 2 hours each way…

I was listening to binaural tunes - they are amazing and I will probably write a separate piece on that - I was is

olating work time and family time, I was going to bed at normal hours, and exercising more than I have ever been! But still, work was stressing me out. One might say this will never change but having worked since I was 14 (they start us early in Brazil 😊), I knew this was bad, and I had to do something about it.

I follow lots of sports and am very competitive myself, so one concept that has always stuck with me is the marginal gains idea that the British cycling team mastered. That extra 1% in every area of cycling, the clothing, the position of the pedals, the weight of the bike, the routine and diet of the athlete; All of it together equates several gold medals at the Olympics.

With that in mind I though, where are my marginal gains? I am a football coach to my son’s local team and during the lockdown I started making videos so that they can keep practicing in their own space, their own garden or inside their home. I started to dedicate more time to videography and photography as a result and I immediately prioritised two things. Light and Sound.

Good old light and sound. So simple, so obvious but often ignored. Changing my sound setup for my football training videos really made a big difference so I thought I could do the same at work. So I tried that and the results really paid off.

Now, of course many other people I work with still only using their simple setup, and I appreciate it would take everyone to do what I did to really make a big difference. But just in my small team, slowly but surely I realised other people were doing the same thing, trying to improve the quality of their setup.

I had tried Apple’s own AirPods and the headsets that the corporates provide. But in the end I went with Rode Go Wireless as my microphone, replacing the internal, one-directional “crappy” internal mic that comes with the laptop. This now allows me to move around more freely during long calls, and provides a sound quality that got many people asking me what gear I was using, so clear was my voice in comparison to everyone else’s.

I will be honest, I am not the loudest speaker and am very conscious of my Brazilian accent. So any marginal gains I can achieve, I will take it! Yes please!

Before going with this option I tried my Bose Quiet Comfort 35 II (QC 35 II) headphones. They are also great but because of the noise cancellation being so awesome, it meant I was not able to hear my family or the daily interactions that everyone now has to deal with like the delivery guys, the phone ringing, the WhatsApp messages 😃 and son on…

So my confidence at work has grown, I don’t have to spend the first few minutes of the meetings asking if people can hear me and I am free to move around, not having to worry about cables.

And sure enough I feel much better in general. Yes, there are still things I’d like to improve but this marginal improvement has already made a big difference.

I have produced a video below which goes into the detail of the options I have and I hope you enjoy it!