What to do about Zoom Fatigue
Video – VLog #15
As we entered into #LockDown globally video conferencing increased overnight such that end-users finish the call feeling tired, fatigued and ready for a coffee.
This is known as the Zoom fatigue.
In this video David Logan asks the life coach [Willie Nicol], what is zoom fatigue and how can one reduce the affects?
Script – VLog #15
David Logan: Hi, welcome to another video. My name is David Logan, the IT Geek based here in Annan, South of Scotland, here for another week here for another video with the co-host Willie Nicol. Hello, Willie, how are you and where are you?
Willie Nicol: Hi David I’m very well, thank you. I’m in Troon south Ayrshire Scotland.
David Logan: That’s great. That’s great. So this week, I want to ask you a question. We’re using Zoom for these videos, but as all these meetings are going online using Zoom, OK to zoom at the moment you can use, i can’t remember the names, Skype, we’ve got Microsoft Teams. They are all video conference, but the word that comes up to me is zoom fatigue. What is it? And how can we counteract that – Zoom fatigue?
Willie Nicol: Thanks, David. Yeah. All these video platforms are similar insofar as we’ll sit in front of a camera, we’re either talking or listening. Zoom fatigue, we’ll call it that. The fatigue is caused primarily by the way we communicate. Human communication is made up of three things. The words we speak, the way we speak and what we are doing. What must be key and arguably the biggest element of that is called body language, i.e. what we’re doing or speaking. Are we moving our arms? Are we fidgeting or what are we doing? And because we’re no longer in front of people, seeing all of them. We’re concentrate very hard on the head and shoulders. So that extra concentration is actually quite tiring. And I have some notes here.
Willie Nicol: People also feel they have to make more kind of emotional effort to appear interested. You can’t sit there. Your face, say, like fizz or, so smiling all the time. Yes. And try to look engaged and interested can be quite tiring, particularly if what the other person seeing isn’t interesting.
Willie Nicol: So another element of fatigue, apart from the non-verbal communication cues we get ordinarily, is that we are now a movie star. We are on camera. We are to a certain extent performing and we’re trying to do a performance in a way that makes us look professional, makes us look good. And that puts a bit of pressure on us. Say the right things. Look professional, when we’re doing it. So it’s a performance to a greater or lesser extent. And we also are under a bit of pressure to make sure everything works perfectly so, we don’t have interruptions like your house-mate come in with a cup of tea wandering in around you, or you haven’t ironed your shirt that day or whatever else. You’re trying to look professional. You’re trying to be make your participation in the call professional.
Willie Nicol: And again, that’s a bit of pressure. Then you worry about technical issues. Suddenly your frozen or your broadband goes down or your concentrating on somebody speaking and they disappear off the screen. And you think, whats happened? Right? You worry about that happening to you. What about if my broadband goes down? That’s worry – in that case it creates a bit of stress as I have talked about quite frequently and becomes very tiring. So at the end of the day, when you’ve been in several zoom calls or whatever, call for your calls, you are always inexplicably tired. Thinking of all I’ve done is sit on my seat, watching, listening, and sometimes talking. But for all the things I’ve just talked about, previously there, is you are concentrating very hard, your making sure everything’s absolute perfect. You’ve tried to come across professionally and all of that is quite tiring whether we realize it or not. So that’s the reason we have fatigue.
David Logan: So is this the kind, the mental well-being, would that be a good way to sum it up?
Willie Nicol: I wouldn’t say mental well-being, but there is a lot of mental stuff in it, and excuse me, if you see it that way, it’s a subconscious. If you like concentrating very hard to pick up these nonverbal cues to make sure everything’s perfect. And we are imposing a lot of pressure on ourselves to make us look professional. If you like in the best possible light, and that can be very tiring.
David Logan: Good. Good. So how do we reduce this .. take regular breaks?
Willie Nicol: Yeah. We’ve talked about taking regular breaks before when we go for a wee walk. Decent breathing exercise or whatever. I mean at the end of the day you just say, no, I’m not doing Zoom calls. Regrettably, that’s probably not an option for the vast majority just now. What you can do is switch off the camera. Just listen to what’s being said. Don’t watch or not bothered about non-verbal cues or that element of communication.
Willie Nicol: As we’re just listening. So the visual part of it’s taking away, which creates which really decreases the concentration, what happened to put into things. You can also use speaker view, so that when someone’s speaking right, you click on the speaker view and you’re only watching and listening to one person as opposed to one person and see a sea of 20 other faces when you’re constantly distracted looking at other people. What are they up to? What are they doing? Right. So if you only have one, distraction, if you like, that’s less tiring than having multiple distractions. Another thing you can do is could you do it some other way rather than zoom or your phone? Why don’t you phone people for a change or send them a text message? Or send them an e-mail? Whatever does it is always have to be zoom calls. Yes, they are very useful. Yes you can get a lot of people in, yes you can get a lot done. Does it always have to be Zoom or Microsoft Teams or what-ever they are. Because they are tiring – you will not be as tired if you just phone somebody. Right. Give yourself time to switch off. Right. So we’re going to do zoom calls – make sure you have a period of time between them to calm down your racing brain as it were, and I talked earlier on a previous video about my iphone overheating. Because eventually your brain will overheat, you got to let it cool down so you can function for the next call. And finally. Do we have to be in all these zoom calls? Always absolutely necessary? Yes, there will be some.
Willie Nicol: But maybe after thinking about learning how to say no, politely, no, I’ve done too many today or no, I’m going to be giving my wee brain a rest or no, if you don’t mind, I’ll just give you a wee phone or send you a message or whatever. So all of these things you can do to reduce the impact of the fatigue because, I personally have come off a Zoom call, or a series of Zoom calls. Why am i so tired when I’ve done nothing? Well, actually, you’ve done lots and lots of stuff. You’ve been concentrating, you’ve been watching, you’ve been listening, your making sure this is right and that is right. Worrying about will my broadband go down. So all this is going on your head and all you think you’re doing is, sitting, watching and listening- there’s a lot more going on and that is tiring.
David Logan: Fantastic. Great Willie. Think that will do us for this week?
Willie Nicol: OK
David Logan: Unless you have anything else, but we’re getting close to the end of our time. If we’re trying to keep to the record time. So to the viewer, if you have any other question on video conferencing or as I call it zoom fatigue. Fire them to us, down to the comment down below, YouTube, Web site, Facebook and LinkedIn, we are on all these channels. Send us your comments. Send us a private message. If you don’t want to say publicly send a message to Willie, or message me, myself. So that’s us for this week, week number fifteen. If I’m right. Wuillie, week No.15?
Willie Nicol: Yes.
David Logan: Good. So thank you for the support, guys, viewers, ladies and guys. Keep supporting us. Keep liking to us. Connecting to us. Please subscribe to our YouTube channel. Have fun that’s the main thing. Stay safe and stay healthy.
Willie Nicol: Yes, David. Great. Thank you. Just thoughts for me, Willie Nicol, life coach and Techno Dinosaur. As you say have a lovely weekend everyone. We’ll catch up again soon.
