Zoom meetings can be great for communication and team productivity, but they can also be too much of a good thing. Video calls of any kind may be draining, as they force participants to focus more intently on conversations in order to absorb information. This can make it difficult to process that information as well as they could in person.
Zoom was a lifesaver during the global pandemic and continues to serve a valuable purpose. But what do you do when Zoom fatigue or burnout occurs? Here are some helpful tips:
Know what to expect.
If there’s no meeting time frame mentioned in the invite, ask in advance how long it might last. This can make it easier to plan your other work around it, as well as double down for the set time period and then refresh afterwards.
- If you’re the meeting organizer, send out an agenda. Keep it as short as possible – and stick to it. Ask anyone who interjects with other matters to table them, unless they’re truly relevant – and even so, stick as closely as possible to your allotted time frame.
Avoid distractions and multitasking.
Even small actions like sending an email or looking at a text can make you lose focus. This makes it difficult and draining to catch up on the conversation. Try to avoid multitasking during Zoom meetings, as well as other distractions.
- Research by the Association for Psychological Science shows that multitasking may not be all it’s cracked up to be: it can actually cost you as much as 40 percent of your productive time.
- When you’re on video, you tend to spend the most time looking at your own face. During your meeting, turn off self-view. It also may be helpful to encourage people to use plain backgrounds or agree to have everyone who is not talking turn off their video. This eliminates additional distractions.
Take breaks.
If you’re the organizer, build in short breaks sometime before the half hour mark if your meeting will last much longer than that. Another fatigue-reducing tool is adding in a few polls, or moving participants to break-out rooms with more active interaction.
- If you’re running the meeting, perhaps you can make the constructive suggestion to ask for time to recharge between segments.
Don’t discount old-school technology.
If a meeting can be avoided all together, or if a matter can be effectively addressed via a phone call, Slack or email, consider using these options instead of Zoom. And if a call doesn’t require video, let your team know in advance that “no camera” is an option. Chances are, everyone will be relieved by this simple switch.
Let the workforce development expert at Accurate Staffing Consultants help you identify the best tools and formulate the best plans to keep your teams healthy, engaged and productive, as well as meet your ongoing recruitment needs in healthcare, office, and light industrial work. Contact us today to learn more.