How to Deal With Zoom Fatigue in the Remote Working Environment
Are you beginning to feel more stressed at your remote job lately? Are you often dozing off in the middle of a Zoom meeting or, worse, rescheduling important Zoom meetings for no substantial reason? The chances are high that you may be suffering from zoom fatigue.
The term “zoom fatigue” may sound relatively unfamiliar to many people. However, the reason is not far-fetched: zoom fatigue has only become very popular recently following the popularity of remote work. The dominance of remote work has increased the overuse of virtual communication platforms like Zoom. This accounts for the popularity of zoom fatigue in recent times.
Zoom fatigue describes the tiredness, burnout, or anxiety that comes with using the popular virtual communication platform called Zoom. However, the term has recently expanded to include other virtual communication platforms like Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Skype, and more.
But the question that begs an answer is how to deal with zoom fatigue. In this post, we will share some essential tips on effectively dealing with zoom fatigue in a remote working environment. They include the following:
Focus on one task at a time
The best way to deal with zoom fatigue in such situations is to consciously ignore all distractions and stay focused on one task at a time. Multi-tasking during your Zoom meetings keeps you at the risk of missing out on essential information.
Make the Zoom meetings shorter
It can become challenging to focus on one task at a time in a remote working environment. You can easily get distracted by almost everything—your dog barking at the neighbor, your roommate on a Zoom call in the next room, your bed looking so comfy for “just a little break from all the stress.” With all these distractions, it is always hard to stay focused on a particular task at a time, which can be very exhausting.
1. Disadvantages of Zoom Meetings
One of the most significant disadvantages of Zoom meetings is that they limit your mobility; unlike physical meetings, you cannot pace the room during Zoom meetings. So you have to ensure that you are always within the view field of your camera, which can be tiring. Therefore, keeping the meetings as short as possible is essential to prevent participants from burning out.
2. Strategies for Efficient Meetings
To ensure that your meetings are short, you should adhere strictly to the agenda, ensuring that only issues on the agenda are discussed and within the time allotted for them; allowing members to bring up random topics for discussion can further stretch the duration of the meeting.
However, in situations where there is so much to discuss in the meeting, you should divide the meeting into sections and give participants some breaks to ease off their stress before returning to the meeting.
Cover your camera
The main issue with Zoom meetings is that we can always see ourselves in the camera, even when we are speaking. This is very distracting: it keeps you on edge, trying to ensure that you look your best and that your background is not distracting. All this stress can be averted by simply turning off your camera until it is necessary. In addition, this would give you the comfort of relaxing on your couch while the meeting is going on, thus reducing your risk of fatigue.
Working from home is not entirely hitch-free; it has some challenges. For example, zoom fatigue is fast becoming one of the most common complaints among remote workers in recent times. Fortunately, adhering to specific strategies (focusing on a single task at a time, taking breaks in long meetings, and turning off the camera occasionally) has proven to be potent remedies to combat zoom fatigue.
