Niksen
Embracing the Dutch Art of Doing Nothing
Olga Mecking
Having read it
★★★★☆
A good book that I read in little chunks, to kind of fit into my early attempts at true niksening!
Slightly more seriously though, everyone needs to read and embrace niksen (certainly in the UK and US) and, hopefully, that will begin the end of running and rating work, productivity and success by the levels of busyness that can be reached.
Plus, it was good to read Oleg’s references to other books that I’d read – namely How to Do Nothing by Jenny Odell and Utopia for Realists by Rutger Bregman – thus proving that everything, or at the very least quite a lot of things are interconnected!
A good passage
In Dutch niks means nothing, and it’s just a small step from niks (which is a noun) to niksen (which is a verb). So niksen literally means ‘nothing-ing’. Marjan Simons offered an alternative explanation: niksen comes from niks doen (to do nothing), which is then abbreviated to niksen.
A second good passage
One of the reasons niksen is so hard is because we feel shame when we engage in activities that are apparently less productive than, for instance, work. We assign lesser value to activities that might be considered a waste of time, such as gazing out the window, sitting still, or looking around the room. It’s very hard for us to see – immediate – value in doing nothing, mostly in light of all the things that don’t get done while we do niks. Saying ‘just do it’ is a little too easy when what is needed is a 180-degree change in perspective.
Niksen is not a random, unimportant activity. It has important, immediate and long-lasting benefits. The Dutch say, ‘doing nothing is good for nothing’, but I beg to differ. ‘Doing nothing is definitely not for nothing.’
A third good passage
If you’re doing nothing, own it. When someone asks you what you’re doing during your niksen time, simply respond, ‘Nothing.’ Be unapologetic about taking breaks or holidays, and if you start to feel guilty about being seen as lazy, think of niksen not as a sign of laziness but as an important life skill that might help you regain some composure, find calm, and prevent burnout.
Choose the initial discomfort of niksen over the familiarity of busyness.