Even Zoom CEO Eric Yuan has Zoom fatigue.
Here are zome (see what I did there) tricks and tips.

Zooming is the new calling. The app has become an inherent part of our work from home lives.

Although it is the greatest invention of | indispensable in COVID-times, we all get tired of staring at our own faces, seeing our colleagues only in 2D and constantly staring at our blue-light blasting screens. There’s even a word for this phenomenon: Zoom fatigue.

Two weeks ago Zoom CEO Eric Yuan announced that even he has Zoom fatigue every now and then. He posted a video with some essential tips on how to use Zoom. Here’s his list:

  • Take scheduled breaks away from the computer.
  • Book meetings for 25 minutes or 55 minutes (or even try going down to 20 or 45 minutes), or end meetings early to give everyone a buffer to recover mentally between meetings.
  • Use chat or email in lieu of a meeting.
  • Try turning off self-view so you can see your colleagues’ faces, and so they can see yours, without having to see yourself.
  • Implement a “no internal meetings day” to give yourself and your employees a break. We’ve been doing this since late last year at Zoom and our employees love it.
  • Encourage employees to set boundaries around their personal time. While exceptions must be made for a global workforce, leaders should discourage night and weekend meetings.

Great tips, thanks Eric! But we have a couple to add to the list.

Welcome to NGRANE WFH Tips&Tricks. I think we all know the Zoom basics by now: mute/unmute with alt/space, gallery view/speaker view/thumbnail view, screen sharing and the lot [ no? Check this list here. ]

Our tips apply to working from home rather than the technology. Working from home can be fantastic: you can work in your most comfortable pants, shower at any time, enjoy your own delicious coffee and tea, enjoy the company of your pets & partner and blast your own music loudly at any time. 

However, working from home has its dark side. We intend to work longer, feel more guilty about taking breaks and usually spend a lot more time behind our screens. There are days we even forget to leave the house. Let’s change that. 

Don’t schedule back to back meetings.

Make sure you have time to take a break from your computer screen and grab some fresh coffee. As Eric said, make meetings as short as possible, 20 to 55 minutes max. If you do that, in combination with some space in between meetings, you have time to take care of yourself, but you will also have time to process the meetings.

Set alarms for breaks.

11 coffee break, 13 lunch, 15 another coffee / walk break. You would do the same at the office, so why not at home? Remind yourself to take those breaks to rest your eyes.

Make sure you don’t eat behind your computer.

You. need. breaks. Make sure lunch is one of those breaks! Of course, there are those days where time is scarce, but don’t make a habit out of it.

  • Also, about eating: don’t eat during Zoom calls. It may offend colleagues, you might forget to mute yourself and chew in everyone’s ears. Just don’t do it.
  • We all know the story of the lawyer who accidentally turned himself into a cat on Zoom (if not, here ya go: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGOofzZOyl8), but from time to time it’s refreshing to change your background or appearance on Zoom. It works when you turn your surroundings into a relaxing beach, an underwater world or the decor of The Lord of the Rings. You just believe you’re there for a split second and can at least enjoy your self-view. 

We noticed that some co-workers had notifications on during a Zoom call. This is of course fine, if you’re muted. However, if you’re an active participant, it might be audible for the rest of your colleagues and could get quite annoying. Make sure to turn off notifications. Here’s how:

Apple “Do not disturb”

  • On an Apple computer, click the settings icon and click “don’t disturb”.
  • You can select a period of time that the notifications are numbed.
  • Do you really want to hack this for a longer period of time? Select “preferences”.

Slack “Do not disturb”

Using Slack at work? It also has a neat don’t disturb function.

  • Select your profile at the top right corner.
  • Click ‘pause notifications’. You can choose a period of time.
  • Again, do you really want to hack? Go to settings > preferences > notifications to shut them up for good.

Windows Sleep mode

Is muting apps not enough for you? Mute your entire system!

  • Windows has a Sleep Mode, called Focus Assist.
  • Right-click on the notification icon the the taskbar.
  • Select Focus Assist and set it to ‘alarms only’.

Apple also allows you to turn the “Do not disturb” mode on indefinitely.

Last but not least, we advise you to take walks. The walk from your workstation to the coffee machine or water boiler is hardly enough for your daily workout. I know, I know, it’s not easy to drag your tired head out into the rain (we unfortunately still live in the Netherlands), but I promise: you will feel better.