Meeting Fatigue

Recently, much of my time is spent thinking about, checking the calendar for, preparing for, or trying to avoid meetings. I'm a designer, so I expect my attendence to occasionally be required when questions of product flow, UI, UX, branding, or other designery things come up. Lately, however, it seems like more of my time is being spent somewhat needlessly. I'm actually one of the lucky people, as some have had their entire existence engulphed by Zoom calls.

My gripe, however, is not necessarily with the meetings themselves, but rather my growing inability to tolerate anything even resembling a meeting outside of work. I got an email this morning from my daughter's school reminding me about Parent's Orientation over Zoom for one of her extra curriculars. Maybe it's because I'm already somewhat familiar since she's done this for a few years, but I didn't even consider attending. The downstream consequence of inescapable meetings can manifest in an unhealthy way by sapping the willingness to participate in potentially informative or enriching experiences. If my knee-jerk reaction is to shut down any and all non-essential meetings just to get some relief, that's probably a sign something's amiss.