The pandemic has brought in an era of virtual meetups. Everything is virtual now – be it colleagues discussing work, business owners hiring new employees, or friends catching up on each other’s life. The only difference is, employees have to be a part of multiple virtual meetings in a day.
It would not be an understatement to say back-to-back virtual meetings are exhausting. It can often lead to burnout and reduce your capacity to perform. So what’s the solution to this? There is no other way to communicate and collaborate than to have virtual meetings.
If you’re dealing with virtual meeting fatigue, here are 5 tips to overcome it:
Take breaks:
The best way to prevent fatigue is to take breaks in between virtual meetings. Resist the urge to jump from one meeting to another. However important it may seem, take a few minutes to yourself.
Don’t worry about what others will feel if you take a break in between. Everyone understands that a break is necessary to refocus your attention on the next discussion. Take deep breaths, get up and stretch, or just look away from the screen to enliven yourself.
Request your manager for a meeting agenda:
Before you get into a meeting, it is important to know what points will be discussed in it to ensure you can contribute to it fully. The more aware you are, the better your chances of understanding things.
This saves you from calling your manager again for clarifications. Make sure you request the manager for the meeting agenda and are prepared in advance. This will help you have a productive meeting and lead to good use of your time.
Use the right software:
The software you use for virtual meetings is also responsible for adding to the fatigue you feel due to continuous discussions. If the software functions poorly, takes a lot of time to connect, or has a complex interface, it can make you feel frustrated.
Not only does it waste a lot of time, but also reduces the amount of information you can share because of the frequent glitches. Opt for tools like Adobe Connect which are easy-to-use and quickly connect you with another user. The Adobe Connect reviews talk a lot about how the user interface is intuitive, making it perfect even for those learners that are not all that tech-savvy.
Resist the urge to do everything at once:
You may feel like replying to a message during a virtual meeting because the camera’s off, but this habit of doing multiple things together actually leads to more wastage of time. You may end up missing out on an important instruction being delivered in the meeting.
Make it a habit to avoid doing everything at once as switching between two different tasks can confuse your brain and increase the amount of time you need to spend on it. The more time you spend back and forth, the more you get tired.
Walk when you talk:
One of the best ways to avoid getting tired is to take a walk when attending audio calls. Now, this may seem like multitasking, but in reality, walking is something that comes to us naturally and requires no effort. It’s as if you are on auto-pilot.
Taking a walk improves your blood circulation and helps maintain your health. It also brightens your mood and reduces lethargy. But this should only be done if you are working in a closed environment and not outdoors as it can lead to accidents.
Conclusion:
It is always best to evaluate whether or not a topic needs to be a virtual call. If it can be discussed through an email, try that. If not, switch to an audio call. Use the above ideas to adjust to the new normal and thrive instead of getting exhausted.
