Overcoming Digital Fatigue....Zoombies no more!

The pandemic has seen a huge push towards using digital technology out of necessity – it has become even more integrated into our work at Mortal Fools. We all live in a socially distanced world in which we spend hours staring into a screen, on Zoom, hours on Facebook, hours on Whatsapp…..this has been a solution for us to continue functioning as Mortal Fools, a means to continue our projects and work, to keep connected with our young people and to digitally network.
Technology has enabled Mortal Fools to pivot, launch and run digital project, achieve fantastic things and yet…… it is not uncommon in our team meetings, for us to talk about our brains feeling fuzzy, tired, lacking creativity, struggling to concentrate and lower productivity than pre-pandemic. 

Sitting for long periods in front of a screen is a recipe for inattention. Our brains simply can’t maintain peak alertness without regular stimulation of movement (our body, not someone else’s), active engagement (e.g. answering a question, engaging in conversation), or meaningful emotional experience. 
Does that sound familiar to you? If it does……well, it could be digital fatigue. Digital fatigue is a state of mental exhaustion and disengagement when you’re using numerous digital tools, platforms and apps concurrently. Digital fatigue occurs for many reasons:
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1. 1,You’ve eroded your usage boundary – if your work requires you to work on digital platforms and you’re also picking up your device, first thing in the morning and falling asleep at night with it in your hand, then digital fatigue will be a regular thing for your brain! AND we’ve never been more connected through technology, we’re always available and reachable.
2. Digital platforms and social networks are assumed to save time, energy and enable folx to connect and yet, digital fatigue is massively on the rise. These platforms are often built to distract, get us to consume, overload our brains with content and information. How many of us have ended up on rabbit hole of information during a work task? 
3. Technology solutions are created as a means to function and do something – technological innovation is happening so fast around us, to enable us to do more, faster…..but our brains are not evolving any where near that rate. For many of us, we are working across multiple devices, with MANY tabs open, doing multiple tasks at the same time without giving our brains chance to rest, breathe and reflect. And when we do take time out – our phones are glued to our hands. That’s A LOT for our brains to handle and cognitively process. Our brain as a resource is limited and can be drained and feeling depleted with over digital stimulus and use. 
4. Our brains can only do so many things consciously at once and online meetings use up a lot of energy and focus – from trying to figure out social cues, to “showing” that you’re listening and engaged, to feeling pressure to use the time effectively and fill the silence, to concentrating on all the faces in the meeting – you’re doing A LOT in every Zoom meeting; it’s the digital version of a marathon! It’s no wonder after a long Zoom, that you feel knackered! 
5. Your eyes are tired! Eye muscles get tired just as other muscles do. Even though the eye muscles are exceptionally strong, they can become strained and fatigued from sitting in front of a computer, a TV or under fluorescent lights for hours at a time. This is called visual fatigue and it is a physical way of your body telling you, ENOUGH! 

​If any of this sounds familiar to you, well you’re not alone! In fact a whole new word has been recently coined to describe it…..”zoombies”. At Mortal Fools, we too sometimes feel like zoombies, as we try to navigate this new digital landscape and we experience fatigue every so often. However, we realise that this digital way of work is here to stay so we’ve got to figure out ways of making it work for us and looking after our brains and well-being, alongside fully embracing the projects, connections and new ways of working digital is enabling. 
So, we thought we’d use this blog post, to share some of the strategies and tips to manage digital usage and mitigate digital fatigue from our Associate Mortal Fools practitioners. They are the ones that have been delivering our Mortal Fools digital projects, have sat in MANY Zooms and have a lot of learning to share! 

1. Turn your self-view OFF/hide self so you’re not spending the whole digital meeting/engagement looking at your face. This will help you stop expending energy looking at yourself/adjusting your hair/being hyper conscious of facial expressions! All of which are exhausting for your brain! Watching yourself on screen is unwanted knowledge and stimulus for your brain!
2. Use the functionality of the platform in a way that suits you! Trying to figure out social dynamics and taking in folx responses can be really challenging on digital platforms – as you can’t get a sense of how things are landing in the same way! It can also lead to miscommunication. Use the chat function and raise hand to check in, to clarify, to participate and to own the digital space.  
3. Curate your surroundings so it feels ready for work. Tidy up, get comfortable, put up some amazing colourful or affirmations, sit near a window so you can get some natural light and if working for long periods, open your window to allow some fresh air.
4. Plan in lots of breaks (to maintain energy you need a break every 45mins of digital screen time) – make sure you get up in between Zooms/periods of staring at a screen and walk and go outside, leave your phone to one side, plan in x2 walks outside a day and during Zoom meetings plan in breaks and don’t be scared to ask for a break if you need it. Screen free breaks, even if it's a couple of minutes just looking out the window or going for a quick walk, will give your eyes and brain a rest.
5. Lower you expectations on yourself and your work load - accept that it's not like a face-to-face interaction, it's a great alternative when we can't physically get together but it's not a direct substitute for proper human interaction so don't expect to get the quality of interactions, level of productivity or to be able to converse in the same way.
6. If it’s a meeting and you’re working through something - ask for a few minutes thinking time off camera to think and make notes on things if you need it. Thinking off camera with a pen and paper, can really help those with visual creative brains. Be honest with those in the meetings – “I think more creativity with my camera off” or “I need more time to process that”.
7. Take responsibility for focusing your brain (and giving it a break) – turn off other distractions, close other tabs, put aside other devices and try to focus. Overloading your brain with other digital things and notifications with increase likelihood of digital fatigue. There’s no such thing as “effective” digital multitasking; when you’re working on two (or more) things at once, none of them are getting your full attention, your switching between different parts of your brain constantly (exhausting!) and what feels like a short-term gain on your to-do list will mean longer term brain fog and a 40% drop in your productivity. 
8. Establish your own boundaries and learn to say no– organise Zoom free/screen free days, say NO to that Zoom (if you’d prefer) and instead suggest a phone call, restrict the amount of digital screen time in your working day, mute your notifications when you’re “off”, don’t feel pressure to respond immediately when you hear a *ping*, check your emails x2 a day and set an appropriate work time curfew. 
9. Change your surroundings – if you’ve had hours via a screen and still have to work more – why not, work elsewhere. A change of scenery can really help and helps activate your brain through movement, a different type of stimulation and mimics what we’d get post pandemic, when moving from space to space in between meetings. 
10. Purposive digital screen time – recognise when you’re endlessly scrolling, going back and forth from various tabs or when a meeting has gone onto a long tangent of unproductivity. Recognise it, own it and take back control! 
11. Be kind to your mind – if you’ve got back to back Zooms, you’re going to feel exhausted and that’s ok – don’t expect after a full day via screen that you’re going to be able to sit and work into the night. You won’t! If you’re an introvert, even more so – you need time to recharge.  
12. Really champion and value a digital meeting facilitator! A good facilitator will set protocols, reduce overwhelm, have and keep to the agenda, ensure breaks (recognise need for them!), manage more dominating participants and invite introverts to participate. For meetings 6+, a facilitator is probably a must, but even for smaller meetings, we’d recommend a meeting “lead”. 

​So there you have it, some suggestions from our Mortal Fools’ Associate Team of freelancers to help you combat digital fatigue and stop you becoming a Zoombie (we do love that word!)! We’d love you to share with us how you’ve found “going digital” and any avoiding digital fatigue tips that you’d like to share. You can comment on this post or tweet us @mortalfoolsuk 
#zoombienomore