How to overcome Zoom Fatigue
The answer to this is not coffee, despite how good the coffee in the photo above looks. Caffeine is often people’s (me included) go-to-thing when trying to focus and get in the zone to work, but chemical stimulation is not a sustainable way of overcoming the dreaded ‘Zoom fatigue’, a phrase which drains me of energy just by uttering it.
Online learning is an interesting one. As more and more teaching is moving to Zoom/Teams, accessibility is increasing hugely, with students being able to join courses, lectures and conferences from all over the world. This also removes the time and financial costs of commuting to in-person events, but despite all of these benefits, a lot of us would still prefer to interact in person. The main reason for this is not that online learning is inherently boring (it’s not!) or that it’s not as useful as in-person learning (it is!). The main reason is that sitting in front of your laptop all day is exhausting… we’re not designed for it. So, here are some simple fixes to feel less drained in online teaching sessions that you can start to implement today!
Seeing yourself on video all day is exhausting… so stop!
This may seem like a niche point, but there’s lots of research showing that people are more self-critical when looking at a reflection of themselves, the same way that staring at yourself in a mirror too often can have negative emotional effects.
To solve this, set the call to show ‘speaker only’, or ‘hide self view’ if you’d still rather see everyone else. This way, you’re not constantly subconsciously assessing your body language and slowly going crazy by staring at a virtual version of yourself all day. Imagine if someone shadowed you every day and held a mirror to your face throughout… after ignoring the weirdness of having a strange mirror-yielding person following your every step, the sight of your own face at all hours of the day is not natural or good for you.
2. The human body is not designed to be sedentary
We’ve evolved over thousands of years to adapt to our environment, but evolution is not as quick as the digital revolution. If it was, we’d probably be hunched figures with talon-like fingers for optimum typing and productivity. Thankfully, we’ve not yet turned into creatures from Lord of the Rings and we have to remember this when we’re planning out our days. No matter how interesting the topic is, or how focused you are, you will be even more productive and less fatigued if you take regular breaks. This is one of those simplistic tips that everyone knows but not many people follow, but it works wonders. Every time there’s a natural break in your work (whether that’s after a 40-minute revision video, or after reading a 31-page chapter of your revision guide) go make some tea, go for a walk, go chat to your friends/family (non-virtually!) or get some fresh air. This is a great way to let your learning sink in, whilst also keeping hold of your sanity and reminding yourself that there’s a life outside of your computer screen.
It’s important to remember how unnatural some of our current work habits are when we find ourselves flagging or feeling burnt out. If this happens, take some time out and don’t beat yourself up… if you never felt like this then you’d basically be an A.I.
3. Prioritise your focus
We’ve all been in online teaching sessions where everyone in the meeting would rather watch paint dry… some where people would even rather watch virtual paint dry, which is a whole new hell. The point is, online teaching often has to be more interesting and interactive than an in-person session would be on the same topic, purely because people are less engaged when not in the same room.
If you feel that you are in a less-than-useful session or you’re flagging, tone down your focus where possible. This is a nuanced skill, as you don’t want to zone out completely and take nothing away, but you also don’t need to force your brain to focus in on 2 hours of bad teaching. At medical school for example, in my first couple of years, some topics were taught very well and some not-so-well. Fortunately for me this was pre-COVID, so I was bored in a lecture theatre rather than in my bedroom, but in the lectures that really dragged I regularly checked in with myself to see how much I was actually paying attention and absorbing. If I was flagging, I’d make a note of the topic to read up on in my own time, and take a 5/10-minute mental break when the lecturer was talking about something non-essential (e.g. their research, recapping a point I already knew, answering audience questions, etc.) and returned slightly more refreshed than before.
An important side-note here is that there will always be some topics that are badly taught and harder to focus on or understand, as there are always certain teachers that are better than others, whether at school or university. For these topics, you can self-teach using textbooks, YouTube, or flashcards, or you can seek better teaching elsewhere. For example, at STEMaccess our tutors can run through the entire syllabus to ensure students are comfortable with the content, even if certain areas have been glossed over or not covered properly at school.
To conclude this point, prioritise your focus by mentally gauging the importance of a session you’re in and responding accordingly. If it’s still hard to focus, or you’re just struggling with a topic in general, then self-teaching in your own time with or without help from a tutor may be the solution.
If this blog post heightened your digital fatigue even more and you want a brief summary instead, the Tl;dr is that living your life through a computer screen is not natural, so take steps where you can to mitigate this and make it more bearable.
Rhodes Willoughby is Co-Founder and Director of STEMaccess, at the time of writing in his fifth year of his MBBS/BSc degree at Imperial College School of Medicine.
