How to Be Bored

Rediscover the gift of boredom with niksen, the Dutch way of doing . . . nothing.

Plagued—as we are!—by nonstop pings and notifications, we’ve lost the knack of zoning out. Slacking off. Being bored. Gone are those golden childhood days when we lazed about in the sun with nothing on our minds or our calendars. These days we fill our hours with work, streaming, and doomscrolling.

How can we relearn to truly relax and reset?

The Dutch have it figured out: with niksen. Perhaps their best-kept lifestyle secret, niksen is the art of doing, well, nothing. It’s the opposite of productivity. It’s the sunny side of boredom. And it’s incredibly good for your . . .

• MIND—it makes you calmer.
• BODY—it offers rest on hectic days.
• CREATIVITY—it clears a space for brilliant ideas.
• WALLET—it’s free!

For anyone who’s had enough of hustle culture, who’s tired of cycling between productivity apps and mindless distractions, How to Be Bored is your guide out of the optimization grind and back to just living.