What is niksen, the Dutch art of doing nothing?

There is something faintly funny about a “Dutch art of doing nothing”. Doing nothing does not sound like it needs an art, or a nationality. And yet most of us find it remarkably hard, which is exactly why the word caught on.

What does niksen mean?

Niksen means doing nothing on purpose. It is an informal Dutch verb, and the Algemeen Nederlands Woordenboek, a dictionary of contemporary Dutch, defines it as consciously not doing anything, with a simpler synonym: luieren, to laze about.^[1] It is formed from niks, the everyday word for “nothing”. So it is a bit like saying “to nothing” as a verb.

The caveat is that in Dutch it is not a philosophy or a method. It is an ordinary word, the kind you would use for lounging about on a Sunday. Dutch speakers talk about “liggen te niksen” or “zitten te niksen”, lying or sitting around doing nothing.^[1] The idea of niksen as a wellness practice is mostly an English-language one.

How do you pronounce niksen?

NIK-sun. The Dutch dictionary gives it two syllables, nik and sen, with the stress on the first, written [nɪk.sən].^[1] The “i” is short, as in “kit”, and the second syllable is soft and unstressed, a bit like the end of “listen”.

What does “lekker niksen” mean?

Lekker niksen means doing nothing and enjoying it. Lekker usually means tasty, but the Dutch dictionary also lists a sense meaning “for your own pleasure” when it goes with a verb.^[2] So lekker niksen is a happy, guilt-free bit of doing nothing, which is a nice phrase to have in your back pocket.

Where did the idea of niksen come from?

The word is ordinary Dutch; the trend came from a 2019 article. On 29 April 2019 the New York Times published a piece called The Case for Doing Nothing, which presented niksen as a way out of the culture of constant busyness.^[3] It described niksen in practical terms as taking conscious time to do things like gazing out of a window or sitting still, and argued that this was not laziness.

The caveat is worth stating plainly: the article was a lifestyle feature, not research, and the “Dutch art” framing was journalism rather than a tradition with rules. That does not make the idea less useful. It just means you do not need to do it correctly.

Is niksen good for you?

Possibly, but no study has tested niksen itself, so be wary of anyone promising specific benefits. What there is instead is interesting research on idle minds.

First, doing nothing is harder than it sounds. Across 11 studies, people typically did not enjoy spending 6 to 15 minutes alone in a room with nothing to do but think, and many chose to give themselves electric shocks rather than sit with their thoughts.^[4] That is a fair description of how the itch to reach for a phone feels.

Second, an idle mind may be a creative one. In one experiment, people who first spent 15 minutes copying telephone numbers out of a phone book then came up with more creative answers on a follow-up task than people who had not been bored.^[5] In another, an easy, undemanding task that let the mind wander improved creative problem solving more than a demanding task, rest or no break at all.^[6] Our pieces on whether daydreaming is good for you and what boredom does to your brain look at this research in more detail.

The caveat is attached to that last study: the benefit came from light, easy activity that let the mind drift, not from total stillness. So niksen may work best in its gentle form, staring out of a train window, pottering, watching rain, rather than as a test of endurance. This is general information, not medical advice. If you feel unable to rest, or flat all the time, talk to your GP.

How do you practise niksen?

Choose a short window and protect it from purpose. Some simple ways:

1. Start with five minutes. Sit by a window. Look out of it. That is all.
2. Put the phone out of reach. Not face down on the table; in another room. Most of the difficulty of doing nothing is the phone offering you something.
3. Pick a low-stakes moment. Waiting for the kettle, the bus or the oven timer are perfect. The New York Times piece suggested moments like standing in a queue or waiting for children to come home from school.^[3]
4. Allow light pottering. Watering plants, folding washing slowly or walking aimlessly round a garden all count, given the research on undemanding tasks.^[6]
5. Do not grade it. If you spend the time thinking about dinner, you have still done niksen.

If doing nothing makes you restless, that is normal, not a failure. Our guide to what boredom is explains why the feeling is so uncomfortable.

Is niksen the same as mindfulness?

No. Mindfulness usually asks you to pay attention to something on purpose, like your breath or your body. Niksen asks for nothing: your attention is free to wander wherever it likes. The 2019 New York Times article presented it as an alternative to more mindfulness, not a version of it.^[3]

That is part of the appeal. There is no technique to learn and nothing to get wrong. If you would like a gentle structure for getting comfortable with empty time, How to Be Bored Again is our short book on exactly that.