5 Ways to Combat Zoom Fatigue
After a full year of video calls and working remotely, employees are hitting a wall, and experts are calling it “zoom fatigue.” It can be attributed to any video conferencing platform, but essentially it encompasses the exhaustion and burnout employees are feeling globally from the draining feeling of video calls.
During a video call, people are required to intensely focus and are hyper-aware of their own selves. During a video call, employees are trying to remain focused and absorb information, but they are also aware of how they look on camera, which can be uncomfortable and make it easy to lose focus.
There are ways to combat video conference fatigue. Here are our top 5 ways to take the stress out of video calls and combat zoom fatigue, and they can all be implemented this week.
Schedule No Meeting Days: Encourage your teams to set one day a week where they do not set meetings. This gives everyone time to focus on working through their to-do lists instead of taking calls and running from video call to video call all day.
Avoid Multi-Tasking: Overall, most experts agree that multi-tasking isn’t achievable. It hinders performance, and your brain and work don’t benefit from switching from task to task. When you’re on a video call, avoid multi-tasking and try to focus solely on the meeting to best absorb all the information.
Build-in Breaks: Schedule breaks on your calendar. Some companies have banned meetings from 12PM to 2PM, so that employees have time to take a lunch break. Schedule time to go to the gym, talk a walk, or use your lunch break to totally unplug and catch up on your favorite tv show.
Turn Off Your Camera: Even if everyone in the meeting is on video, feel free to keep your video off if you need to.
Take Time Off: Ultimately, it’s important for everyone in an organization to take time off. With leaner teams and a heavier workload, it might not seem possible, but you’ve earned your time, so unplug when you need to. Otherwise, you’ll face burnout and even more zoom fatigue.
