How Playing Games in Zoom Can Increase Your Effectiveness

Have you felt Zoom Fatigue within the last month?

If you’ve been meeting with people remotely — your family, your co-workers, your team or your community — via Zoom, then I think it’s safe to say the answer is ‘yes.’

These meetings aren’t necessarily boring, but without any novelty or variety in the place we meet, it’s easy to calcify into your chair.

Every meeting is in the same place — whether it’s with your friends, or your parents, or your online dates, or your cousins far away. Every meeting is on a small screen on your computer.

In normal, non-pandemic real life, we could have one meeting in one place, and then stand up and stretch our legs, as we walk / commute / rollerblade over to our next meeting.

We’ve lost that.

This has led to what some psychologists are calling “Continuous Partial Attention,” where we are always online, and never fully present.

The Antidote to Zoom Fatigue is Play

During my recent live Masterclass (watch the replay here) the attendees saw firsthand how a quick, fun game makes people alert, involved, and interactive. (You can join me for more live fun and games here.)

“When it’s used strategically, play is how we make work more effective.” — Melissa Dinwiddie

Research has shown that when children go out for recess, they come back to their studies more attentive and focused, and their memory recall is increased.

Photo by Sushiman on iStock

The interesting thing about this research is — Physical Education classes did not have the same effect.

It is not physical movement that increases our attention and effectiveness. It is Play.

Playing a game in the middle of your Zoom meeting can harness everyone’s attention, get them engaged, and keep them from being distracted by competing priorities on their computer screen.

When I hosted 10 Fun Games To Play On Zoom, I knew we were going to have a good time.

But that’s not enough.

I want you to have a good time in your next meeting, and to encourage other people who I’ve never met, and will never know, to have fun.

The 10 games I added to the Zoom Host Checklist have detailed instructions, so you can lead these games yourself.

The next time you’re in a Zoom meeting, and you are wondering if you can skip over to another tab to surf around, I challenge you to offer:

“Does anybody want to play a quick game?”

If others are feeling fatigued, they will likely say yes, too.