How To Overcome Zoom Fatigue | 8 Ways To Be More Effective While WFH | Your Guide To Adopting An Agile Mindset

Plus: The platforms providing support to freelancers amid coronavirus

Think back to your first videoconferences as a telecommuter: After a swift exodus from the office, followed by days of social distancing, wasn’t it refreshing to see a few friendly faces? Oh, how the tables have turned. One month and countless hours of video meetings later—not to mention the time spent Facetiming your family, friends and maybe even a yoga teacher or primary care doctor—chances are you’re spent. As it turns out, there’s a term for what you’re feeling: “Zoom fatigue.” And there’s science to back it up. According to research published in the Journal of Psychosocial Research on Cyberspace, it is more difficult to detect expressions of attention, connection, disagreement and irritation when communicating over video than it is in person. As such, you may end up spending extra energy focusing on and interpreting colleagues’ reactions. Thankfully, there are five steps you can take to reduce videoconference exhaustion.

For instance, consider mixing up your modes of communication. When it comes to creating a sense of connection and discussing complex or otherwise sensitive subjects, videoconferences are ideal; for everything else, emails, instant messages and good old-fashioned phone calls will do the trick. Instead of calling a Zoom meeting every time you have a status update to share, consider rotating in one of these other tried-and-true options.

And here’s more on everything you need to know about working from home during the coronavirus pandemic.

For more on working and leading from home, check out our guide, updated daily.

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