Posture on long video calls: raise the camera, then sit back

If an hour of video calls leaves your neck stiffer than an hour of email, the camera is usually the reason. A laptop on a desk puts the lens well below your eyes, so you spend the call looking down and leaning in toward a row of faces. The fix starts there: raise the camera to eye level, sit back in your chair, and stop holding one position for the whole call.

After that come the habits. Stand for some calls, walk the ones that don't need video, and stretch for a minute or two when you hang up. Most of it needs nothing more than a stack of books, and most of it makes you look better on camera too.

Why calls are harder on your body than other screen work

When you write or code, you shift around without thinking about it. You reach for a mug, lean back to think, look away while a page loads. A video call takes most of that away.

• You are being watched. People hold still on camera without noticing. Fidgeting feels rude, so you freeze in whatever position you started in.
• You lean toward the faces. To look engaged, most people lean forward and push their head toward the screen. Held for an hour, that forward head is hard work for the muscles at the back of the neck and across the tops of the shoulders.
• The camera is low. On a laptop flat on a desk, the lens sits well below eye level and the faces you watch are just below it. Your chin drops, and your upper back rounds to follow it.
• There are no natural breaks. Back-to-back calls run into each other. You leave one and join the next without standing up.

None of this is dangerous. It is a long time in one position, and a long time in one position is what tends to leave people stiff. A lot of physiotherapists put it simply: shifting position often matters more than finding one perfect way to sit.

Raise the camera to eye level

This is the change that does the most, and it takes a minute.

1. Lift the laptop. Put it on a laptop stand, a sturdy box or a stack of hardbacks until the camera at the top of the screen is roughly level with your eyes. The top of the screen then sits at or slightly below eye level, which is where it belongs anyway.
2. Add a keyboard and mouse if you type during calls. A raised laptop is too high to type on comfortably. An external keyboard and a mouse or trackpad on the desk keep your hands low and your shoulders relaxed.
3. Sit about an arm's length back. The camera still frames you well from there, and you are not craning toward the screen.
4. Check the framing before the call. Open Photo Booth, or the preview in your calling app, and look. The lens should look straight at you, not up at your chin, and your eyes should sit roughly a third of the way down the picture.

If you work on an external display, put the camera on top of that display rather than leaving it on the laptop off to one side, so you are not turning your head for an hour. In recent versions of macOS, Continuity Camera lets a recent iPhone act as the Mac's camera, and a phone mounted on top of a display puts the lens right where your eyes already are.

Then move the call window up. Drag it to the top of the screen, as close to the camera as it will go. Your eyes follow the faces, so when the faces sit just under the lens your head stays up and you look as if you are making eye contact.

Sit back and let the chair do the work

Once the screen is high enough, you can stop leaning in.

• Back against the chair. Slide your hips all the way back and let the backrest hold you. If the chair has a curve for the lower back, it should meet the small of your back. A rolled towel does the job if it doesn't.
• Feet flat on the floor, or on a footrest if the chair is high.
• Arms supported. Rest your forearms on the desk or the armrests rather than holding them up, and check now and then for shoulders creeping toward your ears. There is more on that in why your shoulders creep up at the desk.
• Lean back to listen. You don't have to lean in to show you are paying attention. On camera, someone sitting slightly back looks calmer than someone with their face close to the lens.

Then let yourself move. Shift your weight, sit forward to speak and back to listen, cross and uncross your ankles. While someone else is sharing their screen, roll your shoulders a few times. Small movements through a call do more good than holding a good position rigidly.

Stand for some of your calls

Standing is a good change of position for calls where you mostly listen or talk, and a worse one for calls where you type a lot. You don't need a standing desk to try it:

• A kitchen counter or a high shelf often puts a laptop at about the right height for standing.
• If you do have a standing desk, raise it for the first call after lunch, or for every other call. Standing desk tips covers heights and how long to stand.
• Keep the camera at eye level while you stand. The stack of books may need to grow.

Don't stand stiffly. Shift your weight from foot to foot, and sit back down when you get tired. The point is to alternate, not to stand all afternoon. Some people also find they sound more awake on their feet, which helps on the call straight after lunch.

Walk the calls that don't need video

A lot of calls don't really need your face: one-on-ones, catch-ups, a quick check on a project, a chat with a colleague you know well. Take those on your phone with earphones and walk.

• Ask at the start whether anyone minds if you walk this one. Most people don't, and some will go for a walk of their own.
• Pick somewhere quiet, a loop of the block, a park or a few laps of the house, so you can hear and be heard.
• Write down any actions as soon as you get back, or send yourself a note on your phone before you go in.

An audio call on the move turns forty minutes of sitting into forty minutes of easy walking, and it gives your eyes a long rest from the screen at the same time.

After the call, before the next one

The minutes after you hang up are the best time to undo the call. Stand up before you open anything else, and spend a minute or two on a few of these:

• Chin tucks. Draw your chin straight back, as if making a double chin, hold for a few seconds, and repeat five times.
• Shoulder rolls. Slow circles, backward, five or six times.
• A chest opener. Clasp your hands behind your back and gently draw your shoulder blades together, or rest your forearms on a door frame and lean through it.
• A long look out of a window, to give your eyes the break the call didn't.

There are more, with steps for each, in two-minute desk stretches.

If your calendar leaves no gap, end calls five minutes early where you can, so that the next one doesn't begin the moment this one ends.

Neck or shoulder pain that lasts more than a few days, or tingling or numbness running into your arms or hands, is worth showing to a physiotherapist or a doctor. Don't try to stretch it away.

How Notchpals handles your calls

Notchpals stays out of calls entirely. While the microphone or camera is in use, no character comes out of the notch, posture or otherwise, so nothing pops up beside a client's face or halfway through a recording. Audio calls on the Mac count as well as video ones.

Once you hang up, the crew picks up again. Your Posture character, Sir Pounce or Barnaby depending on which you chose, returns to its usual rhythm: a posture check or a Shoulders down now and then, and once a day between 2 and 7 PM, a word about how close you sit to the screen. Because nothing arrives mid-call, the visits you do get land between calls, when you can actually do something about how you are sitting.

Sir PounceBack against the chair, if you please. It's a throne, not a hammock.

Press Done once you have sat back. If the next call is about to start, Later moves the request 20 minutes on. Posture checks come out of one daily allowance shared with the crew's other repeating reminders, so on a day of back-to-back calls with no gaps at all, you may hear very little from the notch. That is one more reason to end calls a few minutes early and stand up in the space you make.