Establishing a dedicated workspace in your home is a great way to help maintain focus and energy during virtual meetings. A consistent and comfortable workspace aids in productivity, while also setting boundaries between work and personal life. Pick a space that has ample natural light and plenty of space to spread out, as this will help reduce stress and make it easier to stay engaged with remote colleagues. It’s easy to think that you can use the opportunity to do more in less time, but research shows that trying to do multiple things at once cuts into performance. Because you have to turn certain parts of your brain off and on for different types of work, switching between tasks can cost you as much as 40% of your productive time.
When employees are constantly joining Zoom calls, they may spend all day staring at themselves on the computer screen. Turning off self-view can help combat this fatigue by hiding an employee’s video from their computer screen and making it easier to focus on the meeting. Zoom fatigue is a phenomenon that has become all too familiar over the past year for those who work from home. That means the connections that were provided by work dynamics in person may not be as easy to find with video conferencing communication. When speaking to others remotely, remind yourself that there is lag time and that the other person is likely not being rude or unfriendly on purpose.
Zoom Fatigue Is Real. Here’s How to Cope
When you work from home and attend virtual meetings, you may be missing out on some of the daily exercises you would otherwise be getting from commuting to work and moving around the office. To understand how to combat zoom fatigue, it’s helpful remote working fatigue to start by looking at precisely the source of this fatigue. You can even make exercise a group activity, for instance, meeting up on a video call with coworkers to do yoga or following a 10 minute cardio routine on YouTube together.
Limited movement, due to the technology and expectations related to videoconferencing, could contribute to fatigue, especially considering evidence that people perform and learn better when they move. “Imagine in the physical workplace, for the entirety of an eight-hour workday, an assistant followed you around with a handheld mirror,” Bailenson writes. This would be a ridiculous situation, he adds but is similar to what is occurring on Zoom calls all day. Seeing a need to improve the new virtual landscape, a cognitive psychologist offers a concrete framework as to why so many people experience Zoom fatigue, and how you can help yourself. Investing in yourself first thing in the morning is a great way to set up positive energy for the day, and it doesn’t have to take long.
Why virtual meetings are so exhausting
This means being able to collaborate on projects even while you’re asleep. This is especially helpful for businesses that operate across multiple countries or have international clients. You can avoid long commutes, be free from office distractions, and enjoy the flexibility of setting your own hours. As we enter into spring with already noticeable longer, brighter days, it is the perfect moment to increase the time we spend outdoors, and to get exercise which is a natural mood elevator.
Zoom calling is happening in real time, sometimes with lengthy delays and that is one reason why making video calls is frustrating. Ratan moved to California during the pandemic because he could conduct research and classes virtually. Both he and Fauville have also found that during the pandemic, it has been easier to collaborate with international colleagues, because people no longer feel awkward starting long-distance conversations. Many questions remain about the psychological impacts of teleworking and connecting with others through video conferences.
How Do I Stop Zoom Fatigue?
For external calls, avoid defaulting to video, especially if you don’t know each other well. Many people now feel a tendency to treat video as the default for all communication. But a video call is fairly intimate and can even feel invasive in some situations. For example, if you’re asked to do a career advice call and you don’t know the person you’re talking to, sticking to phone is often a safer choice. If your client FaceTimes you with no warning, it’s OK to decline and suggest a call instead. Finally, “Zoom fatigue” stems from how we process information over video.
If you don’t feel you’re in the position to suggest this out of the blue, you might first poll a few coworkers you’re close with and gauge their interest in implementing such a policy. Hopefully, your manager will commend your proactive approach and want to team up with you. No matter what video conferencing platform you use, the cognitive overload of trying to make human communication via a camera and a computer screen has its consequences. Working at home leads to high levels of mental demand that reduces productivity, especially for parents or people with a shared workplace. Having to manage your roommates or kids while working leads to higher anxiety levels as well.
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