10 Reasons Why The Way You Use Zoom Will Lead to Fatigue

Have you ever experienced a long day of back-to-back video meetings?

You wave goodbye to your colleagues (and their pets), finally click off that 3-hour call that had no breaks.

You notice your back, legs, neck are stiff, and eyes are sore.

Do you also feel emotionally drained, a little weak, and maybe even headachy?

You feel like you need to go and lie down in a dark room, but if you are anything like me you have dinners to cook and children to collect from school.

As you try to switch off for the evening you may notice you are more irritable than usual?

You find yourself snapping at your partner, children, pets, or even the house plants!

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Welcome to 'Zoom' fatigue

If this all sounds way too familiar, then you may be suffering from what is now known as ‘Zoom fatigue’.

COVID-19 had changed the way we work, FOREVER. Bumping us into the fourth revolution, whether we like it or not!

We have now arrived in a new era of digitalness, Web 3.0, and Zucker’borg’’s Metaverse.

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The common symptoms of digital fatique you need to be aware of...

So how can you tell if you or a colleague are suffering from Zoom/digital fatigue?

* Feeling the need to have the camera off for video calls and using the written chat facilities rather than talking.

* Increased headaches, eye strain neck, and back pain.

* Decreased motivation.

* Difficulty concentrating during the meeting or general forgetfulness.

* Irritability with self and co-workers.

* Constantly feeling mentally and physically drained.

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10 Reasons why the way you use Zoom will lead to fatigue

And what you can do about this…

1. Accepting back-to-back meeting requests

Accepting back-to-back meetings will give you no time to digest and process the information you have heard and seen. Meetings will start to merge and become meaningless. Learn to say no and to prioritise, i.e. is this meeting mandatory? What will I benefit from this meeting? Can I delegate this meeting? Does it need to be done via video conferencing software?

2. Forgetting about that old fashioned thing called a telephone

In this golden age of Zoom, we tend to forget about the old-fashioned phone call. If it is just the two of you then why use a video call? If it is more than 2 of you is a meeting required or could it be said with an email or scheduled into a project management tool on MS or Trello?

3. Scheduling long meetings with no breaks

It’s good practice to schedule shorter and more to-the-point meetings of about 45 minutes. Save longer meetings for face-to-face contact. If the online meeting must be longer than 2 hours there should be a short break of 5–10 minutes every 45- 50 minutes.

4. Multi-tasking during meetings

It can be tempting to do something else during virtual meetings, but try to resist that urge. Multitasking burns extra mental energy, which can leave you feeling frazzled and not paying attention to the task at hand. Remove all distractions, such as your phone, turn off notifications and keep your browser windows closed to reduce the temptation to multitask.

5. Being easily distracted by too many stimuli on the screen

It’s easy to get distracted in Zoom meetings as we see all of our colleague’s wonderful faces and random guest appearances from the pets and other family members. We also get a sneak peek into their homes. All of these details capture our attention, and we subconsciously take them in. This can lead to a cognitive overload that will sap our mental energy. Reduce stimuli on the screen by keeping your Zoom window on speaker view. This means it feels like fewer eyes are on you! Be kind to your colleagues by reducing stimuli by keeping your background minimal and neutral.

6. Having too many faces on the Zoom Setup

Video meetings can feel overwhelming as there are a lot of faces looking at you, with potentially lags in body language due to internet sapped and technically you are speaking to them in your personal space. Our brains have yet to evolve to cope with this new way of communicating. Cognitive overload refers to the amount of thought energy we have to put into a task. We normally rely on nonverbal cues. But when we can only see one another’s heads, we have to exaggerate our facial expressions to make sure we’re understood. This requires a more conscious effort. Combine this with the sensation of being constantly watched, the number 1 reason for Zoom fatigue.

7. Not moving around enough

During face-to-face meetings, we move around much more than during video calls. It seems to be good practice to remain still and visible throughout the meeting. Don’t be afraid to have your camera on initially to greet and then turn it off to have some stretches during the meeting. This means you don’t distract others with too much movement.

8. Not using ‘hide self-view'

You wouldn’t walk around with a mirror in front of you all day, would you? Okay, some of you might! Doing this can distract away from the meeting and lead to feelings of self-consciousness and self-criticism. A simple solution is to hide your self-view and switch to speaker view only.

9. Not taking any breaks/Zoom free days

Taking breaks from long Zoom meetings is essential for your body and brain. Turn off your camera for a few moments so you can get up and move around. Exercise your eyes by looking at objects at different distances from you. Schedule at least one Zoom-free day a week. For me, I book out focus times in the morning and make it clear unless there is no other option I do not do video calls before 10 am for my own wellbeing. If possible I also try not to schedule any video calls for the last 30 minutes of the day to allow me some time for reflection. The problem is if we are jumping from meeting to meeting, we are not allowing ourselves time to consume or think about what has been discussed. This will run the risk of important information being missed.

10. Not allowing yourself any space

Sitting in a tiny space in front of your computer all day can be exhausting. Give yourself more movement in your space by using wireless earphones, a keyboard, and a mouse. This will allow you to get away from the computer whilst still participating in the meeting. Be kind to yourself and remember we are used to having different spaces for different things. For example, our work time, social time, and personal time prior to COVID19 took place in different settings — now this has merged!

We socialise more online, we work online, we communicate we loved ones online — heck my book club guess what we now meet online. If you can try to do different things in different places in your house. For example, you might sit at a desk for work, have lunch at a table and then talk to friends from your lounge. This adds a little variety to your day and your brain will start to associate these activities with the rooms you use.

In conclusion: Final thoughts on Zoom Fatigue

Although people are starting to adjust to the increased use of video conferencing tools we are not always applying good practice. This is detrimental to our well-being and that of our teams. Learn to set boundaries, take breaks, have meeting-free days, and look out for your work colleagues too.

© Trisha Dunbar

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