Escape the Zoom Tomb: ways to avoid virtual meeting fatigue
Photo by Julien Bachelet from Pexels
This article was originally posted on LinkedIn on 30th Nov 2021.
Feeling "zoomed out" or like you have stepped out of a dark tomb of back-to-back video meetings!? Many remote workers are expressing the same complaint and we know it can take a toll on our individual well-being. Read on to learn how you can minimize, manage and reset your approach to video conferencing.
Video conferencing showed a 535% rise in daily traffic in 2020, so it is no surprise that "Zoomed out" and "I am exhausted, I was in back-to-back meetings" are real complaints, draining our precious energy levels as remote workers, contributing to eye strain and distracting us from work focus through time blocking and deep work. "Zoom Fatigue" is real, in February Stanford researchers documented the causes and confirmed the term validity. Follow the advice below and begin to make positive changes today!
Say No to too many meetings! It sounds like the simplest advice but it can be the hardest to do. For some people a FOMO (fear of missing out), combined with feeling they need permission to say No to meeting requests, results in too many meetings in the first place. Use calendar blocking to set boundaries and proactively begin to say no to meetings, where possible.
Use better meeting norms & etiquette: Begin with ensuring there are clear no meeting periods that are blocked in your own/team/organization calendars. Some companies have implemented No Meeting Friday Afternoons, as a start. Also, are there norms for the meeting you accept? A mandatory agenda, for example? Clear meeting roles assigned, like a note taker, host etc. What about the length of the meetings proposed? Setting specific limits of 20, 40 and 50 minutes can support better time management.
Turn off self-view: According to The Vision Council, more than 80% of American adults use digital devices for over two hours per day. So proactively reduce eye strain and the potential temptation to focus too much on your own reflection and turn off your webcam self-view, which is gentler on our senses. You can also cover your webcam manually. If you feel really exhausted, pop on your video at the start of a meeting and move to audio only for the remainder.
Better to break it up! In addition to good calendar and time management practices, where you ensure you have comfort breaks between meetings also add in breaks DURING meetings. Suggesting to participants after 30 minutes, "let's take a comfort break, stretch, get some water and reconvene in 5 minutes". Check out my AudioBook; Better Breaks for Remote Workers >>
Multi-tasking adds to our exhaustion: if we attempt to multi-task whilst on a meeting, we are just adding to our potential fatigue, so minimize notifications and endeavor to keep focused on the meeting itself, task or topic in hand.
Improve your meeting “room and view” set-up: adjusting our own web cam, preparing your background/s, workspace readiness, adjusting lighting and supporting good eye health by potentially wearing special glasses all can help you feel better prepared for video sessions
Share your learning and bring it to your team: Once you have taken back some control and are feeling empowered, introduce the benefits of the above to your colleagues and spread the better meetings vibes!
Take on board the above advice and empower yourself today to take back control of meeting fatigue, prioritizing your own individual well-being in remote working.
On an additional note on Asynchronous Communications: Meetings should be about conversations, sharing ideas, reaching consensus and moving to action, so if we have better exchanges in writing (the premise of Asynchronous Working) – we can also move to minimize the number of live meetings and improve overall remote team workflow and productivity. For an excellent overview, read this Doist Blog post on Asynchronous Communication.
Article researched and compiled with the support of Stella Gonzalez Alfonso.
If you or your team would like to learn more about the ‘RoRemote’ approach - please contact me today.
This article was originally posted on LinkedIn on 30th Nov 2021.