Greetings! 

 

I was chatting with my mom, a portfolio manager, the other day and asked her why she sounded so tired-she works from home, so quarantining hasn’t impacted her much. She said she’s been sitting in on a long series of Zoom webinars and is feeling exhausted. In the event any of you are experiencing Zoom fatigue (some days I know I am!), below are some helpful tips. 

1. Opt for speaker view: Part of the reason online meetings can be especially exhausting is because your brain is being presented with an extraordinary amount of information all at once. Whereas in an office meeting setting, you might only be looking at one or two people while in a conversation.
2. In “gallery view” we can see into every single team members’ home, including their dog running through their background. This is way more information than our brains are used to getting all at once. So instead, switch your settings to “speaker view” to opt for a more focused visual experience. By just focusing visually on the person who’s speaking, you can better focus your attention.
3. Watch your breathing: Be mindful while on video calls that you are breathing deeply. When we’re on our technology our body tends to breathe more shallowly, which adds to our fatigue.
4. Give your eyes a break: Everyone’s eyes need a break from all that screen time. Look out in the distance and feel how your eyes immediately adjust. Looking at screens for too long means our eyes never get that break from focusing on our near vision field, and giving them some variability on that front is especially important. Doctors recommend a full 10-to-15 minute break from screen time for every two hours of work. 

See you Wednesday. Yours in service.