There’s a couple of expressions I’ve been hearing recently “zoomed out” and “zoom fatigue’. You may have heard them too. At first, it struck me as funny. After all, we went from meetings in-person to virtual meetings quicker than a Porsche accelerating from 0 to 60mph. And now, we are already zoomed out?

It is incredible how quickly we have adapted to virtual meetings. The statistics prove it. Just look at how quickly we have all moved across to the new way of working. Zoom’s revenue for its fiscal first-quarter, in 2020, more than doubled from the same time last year to $328 million, resulting a profit of $27 million — up from just $198,000 a year ago.

But as with anything that moves so quickly, there can be burnout, because virtual meetings ARE different.

According to Gianpiero Petriglieri, an associate professor at Insead, who explores sustainable learning and development in the workplace, being on a video call requires more focus than a face-to-face chat. Video chats mean we need to work harder to process non-verbal cues like facial expressions, the tone and pitch of the voice, and body language; paying more attention to these consumes a lot of energy. “Our minds are together when our bodies feel we’re not. That dissonance, which causes people to have conflicting feelings, is exhausting. You cannot relax into the conversation naturally,” he says.

So are we really “zoomed out” or have we lost a little focus? Love them or hate them, virtual meetings are going to be an important part of how we do business, so we need to address this. Let’s examine some ways to make zoom fun and productive again.

In many ways, the rules of meetings are the same whether they are in person or virtual, but because we are virtual now, we seem to have forgotten a lot of the rules or conventions that make good meetings. Here’s just 5 things that I think can reduce zoom fatigue.

1. Start with best personal highlights

At times like this, it’s good too, as the Monty Python team in ‘Life of Brian” encouraged us to do “Look On The Bright Side Of Life”. So rapid-fire from each person, what was the best thing that happened personally to you or in the family recently?

2. Have an agenda

Didn’t we do that before virtual meetings? And the beauty of having share screen ability is that we can show it and make sure we are covering the points of the meeting. Let’s get back to the efficiencies of meetings. While we are at it, do we all know what the objective of the meeting is? Let’s state it and at the end of the meeting rate whether we accomplished it.

3. Avoid back to back meetings

In many, many companies, back to back meetings became the norm. And then as virtual meetings took over, people adopted the same practice. We need time in between to file notes, reflect. We need downtime. Speaking of…

4. Take breaks

Exhaustion can creep upon us. There are no natural breaks that we used to have like water cooler meetings, walking down the hallway or car trips to get to the next meeting. We need to build these in to our day. Our brains need the variety.

5. Take Naps

Yes, you read correctly. Take a power nap before or after lunch. Set the alarm and have a 20-minute nap to rest your eyes, mind, and spirit. It is really refreshing and working from home, as most of us still are, a couch or bed is not far away.

OK, I know, not an exhaustive list by any means, but let’s start a movement to STOP ZOOM FATIGUE. What are some of the things you use to prevent zoom fatigue? What works for you? 

 

The cartoon image source : Tom Fishburne https://marketoonist.com/