cognitive overload and limited tolerance on zoom

[Regenallotment]

is it me?

I just had an all day training on zoom, I was lost within 40 minutes.

I am super organised, I’d done all the prior reading, I’d downloaded all the documents.

Not all through but there were parts where I couldn’t follow what they wanted us to do, it all went by in a blur. I could find the right page or understand the task. It was like I wasn’t listening… but I was!

I needed twice as many breaks as they offered. Thank goodness for the ability to turn your camera off.

By the end I could tell I was labelled as ‘the annoying one’ by the host but bless some wonderful young trainees that piped up that they felt the same.

I just don’t have the capacity to stay tuned in like before, I sit reading the same paragraph over and over.

Apart from having a long day yesterday, so a bit tired, I’m pretty much optimal now, vits all going in the right direction, AI diet maintained. Is this how it’s going to be now? Life as not the full ticket 😳

Tell me it’s not me, it’s them 🙏

[HandS]

it’s definitely them. Don’t worry : a ridiculous learning environment - and far too long . The penny will drop somewhere sometime.

[Regenallotment in reply to HandS]

Thank you, I know this but had such a crisis of confidence by the end of the day. I needed reassurance 🦋

[HandS in reply to Regenallotment]

I’m so sorry it did that to your confidence but understand perfectly why it might. I guarantee you were not the only one who felt like you did today 💝

[Jazzw]

It’s them! It sounds like whoever was leading the session completely misjudged the pacing.

Zoom is much harder work than a F2F session and experienced trainers know this. If you felt like the host was getting annoyed with you, that’s on them, not you.

Hugs! xx

[Delgor]

Keep having faith in yourself Regenallotment - you should be feeling proud of all that you have achieved in such a short space of time. As Jazzw has already said zoom is much harder work and yet you completed a day in it - fantastic!

[Aurealis]

I agree that remote working is intense. Maximum time that attention can be maintained at a high level is 40 minutes and any presenter worth their salt will plan their session to allow for this. Thank goodness for poor internet connections / post-it notes and cameras that can be turned off. Beware cats that dance on the keyboard, occasionally hitting the combination of keys which turn the camera back on ! 😳

[Dandelions]

If you as an experienced and well-organised person felt that way, I can only imagine how the young trainees would have felt. My guess is that by asking and speaking up you will have supported the young trainees, who'd otherwise might not have felt they could speak up. So you probably actually did a good thing without realising!

[lovelab]

It's them and it's zoom. But I do think there are days when it seems better than others. Full day is a nightmare and counterproductive in my view.

Taught baccalaureat English in lockdown on zoom, classes of 30+. Had to really rethink how to teach in short sequences because of short attention span (me! and the kids), also the chaos of just being online and it not being compulsory for kids to have the cameras on. I was a nervous wreck and totally wiped out at the end of a session. What makes me laugh is we had to keep a roll call for the school. Definitely the school not understanding the limitations of teaching on zoom and bad internet connections. Needless to say this extra stress showed up in my blood tests. And had to rethink everything.

[Jaydee1507 Administrator]

Having read your results post you’re far from optimal. A lot of fine tuning needed!

[Hidden]

I don't think we can definitively say that it was 'them' or zoom without having been in the session. I've noticed that I struggle a lot more with concentration than I did before, and tend to avoid long sessions for that reason.

I also have ADHD so I kind of put it down to that getting worse due to reaching menopause age... but in all honesty, I do think it's thyroid related. Immensely frustrating and also very worrying so I can totally empathise.