Today I am Grateful for: Zoom

Many of us know the terms “Zoom Fatigue” or “Zoomed Out.” Many of us in the Agile Best Self like-hearted community work in IT or related jobs that could be transitioned to remote work. In this type of context, intentional use of Zoom is important – for context, see my post on Zooming In or Zooming Out? Make intentional tradeoffs that allow you to be more.

With that as context, it may be surprising for some of you that I’m thankful for a tool that many find exhausting, frustrating and sometimes overwhelming. I work on Zoom every day; I frequently comment that using Zoom on a small laptop screen is frustrating, but an intentional decision on my part. I purposely stick to one laptop screen (as opposed to hooking in to the three large monitors on my desk) so that I have some physical mobility during the day. In addition, I can’t connect my work laptop to my home monitors due to security access issues.

Being my best self requires me to be mobile. To eat healthy meals and get in my 10,000 steps, I move from my office to my kitchen to my treadmill in the basement. The cost benefit analysis requires me to give up multiple screens so that I can be mobile.

That said, I don’t love Zoom as a tool. I think Zoom is fabulous because it allows me to connect with people across the world. Right now, I’m sitting in my house in Minnesota attending a conference that would be physically located in Boston. No airline travel required. I slept in my own bed last night. Instead of rushing through an airport and unknown city, last night I cooked a healthy meal, helped my son with his homework and had time to sneak in several meditation sessions.

Sometimes being more means limiting all the travel WIP – which Zoom does beautifully !

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