If You’re Exhausted by Zoom, Try ‘Reverse Meetings’ Instead
A best-selling author has a surprisingly simple suggestion to fight Zoom fatigue
By Jessica Stillman
We’re a year into the pandemic and science has now confirmed Zoom calls are really, really exhausting, You probably knew that from personal experience by now, but research shows ‘ Zoom fatigue’ is real and pins down its causes (humans, it turns out, are not wired to sit still, maintain eye contact, and stare at video of themselves for hours on end).
Still, even with the end of the pandemic now in sight, it’s unlikely we’ll go back to working like we did before. Remote work, at least part of the time, appears here to stay. So how do you manage it without burning your brain to a crisp with endless video calls?
Best-selling author and computer science professor Cal Newport recently offered a simple but powerful suggestion on his blog.
Reverse meetings to the rescue.
The idea is that instead of sending each other endless Zoom invites, we all adopt virtual office hours and pop in for quick conversations as needed instead. Newport lays out how this would work with three quick bullet points:
- Everyone maintains regular office…
