How do you do it—in layman’s terms? Is it like meditation, or is there a more active method?
'Puttering' is an English term which I feel is closely related to 'Niksen' but not exactly the same. With 'Puttering' there's always an action. But with 'Niksen' you can be sitting in a chair, looking around, 'doing nothing'.
I would even argue that meditation is not 'Niksen', because with meditation there's intent. It's actively calming yourself down.
And just like 'Niksen', that too is without deeper intent. You just hang. Closest I can come in English is probably 'idling about'.
You do or don't do stuff. Your brain is meandering about. You don't really care about time passing.
It's definitely an art form, most people get bored after a while - true masters can do days on end ;)
This really is the Silicon Valley definition of “meditation”. Not what it’s meant to be.
True meditation seems to fit the definition of “niksen” perfectly. “Calming oneself down” is a side-effect of it, not the primary goal. As Alan Watts said (I paraphrase) - meditation has no purpose. You just do it because you’re grooving with the eternal now.
GP cites watching a movie while one's mind is wandering as an example of Niksen. That doesn't seem to fit any definition of meditation I'm aware of.
I often end up doing something hobby-like, like reading a book, some gardening, maybe even some woodworking. It's all about creating a moment where you can be in the moment.
The idea is that when something "takes" your mind you just focus on it to the exclusion of everything else i.e. no judgements, past, future etc. When your mind "moves" to the next thing it drops everything (with no residue) and gets "fully filled" with the new thing. This happens instant to instant leading to a state of "enjoyable peacefulness".
Disclaimer: did not read the article but am Dutch