3 Simple Ways to Beat Zoom Fatigue

Photo by Darina Belonogova from Pexels

Shall we all have Zoom-free Fridays?

Video calls can be uniquely exhausting compared to in-person conversations, according to researchers from Stanford, and most office workers say that as the remote work revolution drags on, they are constantly wrestling with how best to combat fatigue.

I talk about meetings a lot in Reclaim your Time Off, because I believe the whole meeting culture could see a big re-haul.

Zoom-free Fridays are an idea originating from Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser's plan to provide the bank's staff a weekly respite from video calls.

This spawned a debate about the mental toll of the pandemic workday on office workers. Would a 'meeting free' day be good for us and our mental wellbeing? I believe so. Making space for creativity and actual rest means being able to create the right environment around us, one that is not constantly interrupted by external stimuli.

Here are three things that you can do to optimise your meetings and beat some fatigue.

The first thing you can do is look at your days and set out how many meetings you can really have every day. Once you do that, make sure that you allocate a specific time throughout the day that will be best for you to have those meetings.

Do you prefer having a chat in the afternoon, or in the morning?

Ensure that those meetings, especially the recurring ones, don't fall during your most productive time today.

Make sure that you have some buffer time in between each meeting to create a clear meeting agenda. Before your conversation, ask the person you're talking to. If there's anything they want to discuss, or you should prepare.

This can reduce the meeting time by up to 50% by simply doing that. You can also make sure that you cover precisely what needs to be talked about and nothing more. It will keep you more focused, more concentrated, and finally, it will make sure that your meeting doesn't run over.

Last but not least, ask yourself a straightforward question.

Could you take this meeting and turn it into a phone call?

I know, groundbreaking. There is a lot to be said about the power of just having a phone call. Did you know that one of the biggest problems with Zoom meetings is that looking at our face can be incredibly stressful?

It’s not a formal diagnosis, but Zoom fatigue is very real. Krystal Jagoo, MSW, RSW, notes that it feels “similar to what we tend to think of as exhaustion or burnout.”

Indeed, because we have so much focus that we need to put on and we're not allowed to take breaks throughout the meeting, we need to constantly be putting our attention directly on the screen, which can also affect our high sights and overall our brains.

Since remote working has become something that we're all trying to approach, we find a way to create that balance between ourselves and make sure that we don't get sucked into this fatigue.

Follow me to see more articles on reclaiming your time.

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