Beating Online Meeting Fatigue

Zoom fatigue is a real thing. For the past few years I have been taking classes online, many of these classes have been held on Zoom or Skype. I learned quickly that the novelty of staying home had a price. If you are beginning to get tired of the online world but want to remain productive, I have come up with a few helpful tips to keep you going.

1. Change of venue. If there is nothing stopping you from putting on headphones and sitting on your deck for your staff meeting, then do it. First of all being outside helps your mood and second of all getting out of the same room you have held all your meetings in will do more for your creativity than you think. Just because a vacation is currently going to the front porch, it doesn’t mean you can’t find creativity in your home. Just … be creative.
2. Go for a walk. When you take a break from budgets or a bible study, go for a walk. Even if it is just to the kitchen or around the block, get the blood flowing. I have noticed that it wakes me up and reengages my attention span. Make the most of your meeting time, but leaving it. It sounds counter productive but you will accomplish more in the long run.
3. Limit the meeting length. We have known for years that long meetings are useless. People that love meetings are really strange to me, they probably just love the sound of their own voices. So keep to the rules you should have been following while meeting in person, keep it short. When possible limit your meetings to 1 hour. After all most items can be dealt with in email. Especially if you are meeting with non-boomers, shorten your meetings!
4. Your beverage. If you are in love with coffee like I am, that’s cool. However, make sure you are matching your coffee with water. I learned this trick in college when staying up late to study I would feel like garbage the next day. Then another student mentioned the 1 to 1 trick, I tried it and haven’t looked back. Coffee can dehydrate you, water does the opposite. So if you need the caffeine, you also need the hydration.

I hope these simple tips help you in your journey to holding better online meetings. Our productivity should be going up at a time like this, not going down.