The 2020 pandemic stampede to teleconferencing platforms has had its share of hiccups, bloopers and uh-ohs. As our work lives and private lives begin to merge it’s easy to get a little careless. More than once I have sat down for a meeting only to see a stack of dirty dishes or an unmade bed that needs attention right there on my camera feed. Don’t become a statistic.

If you find yourself pressed for time to tidy up before a meeting, consider putting a virtual background behind yourself. In Microsoft Teams, for example, press the “…” button and choose “show background effects” to bring up some alternate universes. A nice mountain scene always looks better than dirty laundry.

Don’t sit with your back to a bright window unless you are in the witness protection program. Your camera will automatically adjust for the light behind you, and you will be hiding in the darkness just like the guy who “squealed” on his Mafia family. Instead, use the window as a lighting source, putting it a little bit to the side of your face at a 45-degree angle. Don’t face directly into the window. Your features will be washed out without a bit of shadow to define them. Alternatively, put a lamp right behind your computer either slightly to the right or left for best results.

If you cover your laptop camera when you’re not using it, be careful that you don’t fall victim to the sticky-note-glue “vaseline lens” effect. A dreamy haze was a great way for 1930s film stars to hide their wrinkles, but in 2020, it just makes your video look murky. Clean your camera lens often and leave the fancy cinema effects to the pros.

Sound issues abound on teleconferencing. If this is a new experience for you, do a test call with a friend to make sure your microphone is working properly. This is much better than holding up an entire meeting while you try to figure out your tech. And, after you’re finally in your meeting, (be sure to arrive on time!) keep distracting noises and feedback to a minimum by muting yourself when you aren’t talking and wear headphones when possible. This will keep everyone’s attention on the person speaking and not the ding of your coffee cup. The more people there are on a call, the more important this is.

For those who, like me, are doing at home “social distancing,” hair can also become an issue. Whether it is the dreaded “Bride of Frankenstein” hair stripe or “Edward Scissorhands” self-cut, it can become really obvious you haven’t seen your hairdresser in months. In my own experience, that too-short November haircut looked great in March, but now it is September, and I am wondering if I should finally risk a visit to my hairdresser, cut it myself or just tie it back before I go to my meeting. Since I’m not yet ready to call my hairdresser and it could look much, much worse if I tried to cut it myself (thanks for the tip, Edward!), I wash it, gel it and hope for the best. My best advice is to choose what works best for you.

Pandemics can be lonely places. To add some warmth to your meetings, try looking up at the camera sometimes instead of just down at the screen. It may be an abnormal feeling because you’re not actually looking at people’s faces, but if you look up every so often, people will feel more engaged with you because it will seem to them like you are looking at them. If your meeting is small enough, you can resize your participant window and spread it across the top of your screen to help with this.

Microsoft Teams and other teleconferencing apps (TEAMS, WebEx or Col-laborate via eCampus) are a great way for the Dallas College family to stay in touch with each other as well as with work colleagues and friends. Just a few minor touch-es can make this experience better for everyone.