Is this you? Slumped back in your computer chair, your to-do list carefully placed just out of sight, your eyes drifting in an out of focus. Even the methods of procrastinating are getting boring. You barely have the energy to scroll the mouse. This isn’t writer’s block, this is a funk, and that calls for drastic measures.
Take a walk, take a shower, take a nap. Reboot.
An especially deep funk may require a three-pronged attack, but usually one of these strategies works for me. Taking a walk gets your blood pumping, will make you breathe a little deeper. Maybe your brain is just low on oxygen. Taking a shower seems to be the signal to my body to wake up and start the day. Taking a nap can be a dangerous tool; use it with caution. If I have weird dreams I wake up in an even worse funk. (I don’t recommend Foucault’s Pendulum as pre-nap reading.)
Junk food will eat your soul. Avoid it.
It was unseasonably hot this weekend. When it’s hot, I don’t feel like cooking. When I don’t cook, I don’t think in terms of meals. Instead I think, is there any salsa left? A bowl of cereal with milk would be nice and cool. Mmm, frozen chocolate. Before long, all I can think about is how much my stomach hurts. Any concentration I had left is shattered. Don’t let this happen to you.
Sing at the top of your lungs.
Put on some upbeat music and belt out the lyrics. Like taking a walk, it will get your blood moving. And maybe the sheer noise, especially when your dog howls along with you, will wake you up.
Get into someone else’s head.
I have a dozen books I pick up when I don’t really want to think. Some of them are funny, some of them I’ve read so many times I almost have them memorized. The key is to get out of the loop of boredom, so I don’t recommend watching anything on TV. That could put you into a coma from which you never recover.
Write.
It may seem like way too much effort to write when you’re in a funk, but set a timer for ten minutes and try it. You may just need to take a broom to the cobwebs in your brain. Writing it all out helps make room for the good ideas that were suffocating under the spider corpses.
Reward yourself with work.
When you’ve finally shaken off the funk, don’t start with the worst thing on your to-do list, even if it’s the most important thing. Start with something you enjoy and work your way up to the job that put you in the funk in the first place. You should be better prepared to deal with it now.
How do you deal with a deep, dark funk? Share your experiences in the comments.
