Are You Suffering From Virtual Fatigue? by Sue Hope

In response to COVID-19 the ‘Live Up’ COVID COMMUNITY was set up to support our communities with practical wellbeing resources that can be used for these extraordinary circumstances of social distancing, community lockdown and quarantine. This article from Sue Hope looks at connecting virtually in a positive and sustainable way.

Virtual Fatigue

In the past few weeks, a lot of people have found out that remote work feels more intensive to them than when they were at the office... and that they are spending the whole day in video meetings. Well no wonder we're all so tired! Staring at a screen talking with people feels more intense than writing or browsing. We start to get virtual fatigue after about 40 minutes.

So what can we do about this?

1.     Shorten your meetings - try using the speedy meeting settings (like in google). This means that by default, 30 minute meetings are scheduled for 25 minutes, and 1 hour meetings are scheduled for 50 minutes. 

2.     Prepare before the meeting by sending out the information required. This could be a presentation, an activity sheet or even a video of what it is all about.

3.     Focus the meeting on the discussion and decision making.

4.     If you must have a longer meeting have breaks after 45 minutes and encourage all participants to have five minutes away from all technology.

5.      An easy rule of thumb: "Stick to the facts online. Save the complicated, emotional stuff for a higher bandwidth channel." Find out more from about this (Click this link for and interview from Lisette Sutherland who interviewed Peter Hilton who works with teams that need to decide how they are going to work together in person and virtually).

6.     Try out some virtual white-board tools.

Most importantly we are all different so recognise how you need to structure your day, have breaks and look after your energy flows. This is vital if you are a leader of teams or in classroom sessions.

As always have fun in your virtual world!

References:

Photo sourced from free stock images - gabriel-benois-qnWPjzewewA-unsplash.jpg