All it took was a good sleep and a nice swim to break me out of Thursday’s funk. In effect, I had achieved what I like to call defunkification (and I don’t mean the stinky stuff).

What is defunkification? Quite simply, it’s the process of breaking out of a funk, i.e. a depressed mood that keeps you from getting on with anything useful (the verb form being “defunkify”). For me, a funk usually means staring at the computer screen doing nothing useful even though I know I have tons to do. But I don’t know where to start, so I do nothing, and this idling puts me in a funk. Is there a way to break to cycle?

Coincidentally, this topic came up with my client later on Friday. He used the term “demoping”, which is essential the same thing. He had a fantastic defunking strategy:

Go outside and talk to a stranger.

This got us brainstorming other defunking techniques…

• Go for a walk
• Write in my journal
• Go for a swim
• Make the bed
• Take a shower
• Make a cup of tea
• Tidy my desk
• Just pick one thing you want to accomplish and set a time limit, usually 30-minutes or less

Some of these techniques may seem more like procrastination than defunkification, but does it really matter if it snaps you out of it?

What about you guys? How do you break out of a funk?

Diary for Friday, March 6, 2009

Swim

What a difference a solid sleep makes. Friday morning, I felt mostly recovered from Thursday’s funk so headed straight to the pool and swam a blissful 2000 meters. Nothing to challenging, just slow and steady, for about 50 minutes. By the end of my swim, I felt fully recovered and ready to take on the day.

Breakfast

Bircher Muesli with Bananas

Lunch

Chana Masaledar with Cabbage Salad, Raw Veggies, and a Slice of No Knead Bread

Cycle

12-mile round trip ride to my client’s office and back.

Sandwiched between the ride was a long meeting at my client’s office. That makes my afternoon sound somewhat lame and boring, but in fact it was the opposite. My client is a small start-up company and I’m helping them design and develop a bit of software. The people who run the company are “idea people” and I really enjoying the creative process that working with a small group of motivated people affords. The gig is teaching me a lot about how to run my own business pursuits. Overall, it’s a bad way to pay the bills.

Snack

Apple and a few nuts. Consumed at the client’s, no camera alas!

Dinner – Rocket launch!

Penne pasta with the best arrabiatta sauce ever, prepared lovingly by Tim. Served with a rocket, cucumber and parmesan salad.