Here we are in February
and a good solid year into the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic that has taken
all our lives and turned them upside down, times twenty. Our kids were pulled from in-school learning,
we were told to work from home, and God forbid you are seen at the local
grocery store more than one time per week.
We went from being free to being prisoners in our own homes.
Zoom’s CEO, Eric Yuan,
became one of the world’s richest people in 2020. Zoom became avid in school and businesses, we
needed Zoom! Zoom is what kept our
children getting their education and kept employees getting their paychecks;
all from our home. Now don’t get me
wrong, there are other platforms as well who helped make a difference during
COVID-19 such as: GoToMeeting, Google Hangouts, BlueJeans, TeamViewer, etc.,
they all helped during our crisis, however, Zoom flourished! How cool is it
that I can have a meeting with people in another country all while sitting in
my house with my pajama pants on and a nice shirt? AMAZING (I never did that by the way).
The challenge however, do
we really get a true break when zoom is just a click away? Think about it.
Everyone now knows how easy it is to just hop on a video call really fast. Before COVID, people scheduled meetings to
meet with you in person, they didn’t have to try something new. Now they have to learn something new and only
want to zoom with you and not meet in person.
This is convenient; however, this makes it a struggle to separate work
from home and to give us a rest from office life. Zoom can be exhausting!
Some signs of Zoom Fatigue:
●
Leaving a
zoom meeting feeling tired or having less energy than when the meeting started.
●
When you are
in a zoom meeting, you don’t get the “social-high” like you would at an
in-person meeting.
●
You feel like
communication is lacking due to interruptions.
●
You are angry
due to technical issues and/or terrible internet. Darn technology isn’t always
on our side.
●
You are
feeling confused during meetings.
●
You
constantly think about work, even when at home.
How can you prevent and/or help yourselves through this zoom fatigue
you ask?
●
Avoid
multitasking! I know, I know, I am guilty as well. Again, I thought this was another perk;
however, I have recently learned that when multitasking on a zoom meeting, it
costs us up to 40% of our productive time and causes a lot of memory
issues. We need to focus on the meeting
100%!
●
Limit your
zoom meetings: Having a large number of individual meetings throughout the day
can burn you out fast. Instead, have one or two zoom meetings with the same
people but in a group setting, Group Zoom! Another though, switch up the
meeting to another format. If the
meeting doesn’t need to be a zoom meeting, send an email or make a phone call.
●
Move around:
Sitting in a meeting in person for more than an hour gets tiresome and so do
zoom meetings. Try to get up and move
around at least every hour. This
movement will not only give you a break but will also get those creative juices
flowing for your next call.
●
Put your work
clothes on: Yes, it is nice to sit in
our pajamas and yet still get paid as if we were in the office, however,
putting on your work clothes will, overtime, help you associate “work” clothes
with work and “home” clothes with home.
For those of us who do wear makeup, then yes, this applies to make-up as
well.
●
Speaker
View: Zoom offers a speaker view and a
gallery view. I love the gallery view
because I can see everyone at once, and what they are doing, however, using the
speaker view will help you give the speaker 100% of your attention.
●
Location: Make sure you are in a room that is quiet,
preferably a desk or table. Your bed,
couch, etc. is not the best choice. Make sure your kids know when you are in
this room and on your computer, it needs to be quiet and they cannot disturb
you as you are in a meeting (easier said than done).
●
Get some
air: Take a step outside (unless it is
-36° like Minnesota/North Dakota) and take some deep breaths and enjoy mother
nature (unless you see one of your kids zoom by on a 4-wheeler that they aren’t
supposed to be driving then just go back inside (HAHA – true story)).
Lastly remember, you can
get through this, it is only temporary.
I look forward to seeing
everyone at our next IAFE YPI Event, on zoom!
Emily Grunewald
Director of Agriculture
Red River Valley Fair, ND
