Photo Guy Ackermans The academic year has only just begun and students are already up to their eyeballs in deadlines and lectures. The philosophical attitude newly acquired during the holiday of dolce far niente (pleasant idleness) has to be discarded again by Day 3. Optimum efficiency is what is expected from students. No more dithering — get down to work!
We have become ever more productive over the years. It all started with the Industrial Revolution, of course, when tasks that had previously taken 50 men days to do could be completed by a machine in no time. Later came computers and now we have AI. But why do we even want to be so efficient? It’s not as if we started working less once we had machines helping us. And I haven’t heard too many people saying, ‘I saved so much time today with ChatGPT that I spent it on relaxing in the sauna.’
Why do we want to be so efficient?
The aim of efficiency is higher productivity. But most people don’t realize that you, as an individual, don’t gain from higher productivity. The office hours stay the same. So I have decided to embrace efficiency and make it work for me rather than for the system.
Last week, I reviewed my daily routine and came to the conclusion that it is full of time I am not spending efficiently. To give an example, I don’t need all my mental powers to complete the tasks of brushing my teeth and going to the toilet. So I have decided to take the proverbial bull by the horns and set my grey matter working while I complete these daily tasks.
I have stuck up all 15 verses of the Wilhelmus — our Dutch national anthem — in the toilet and have hung a copy of the painting of Netherlandish Proverbs by Pieter Bruegel above the washbasin. This painting depicts more than 120 sayings and proverbs. Now I can expand my knowledge of Dutch language and culture as part of my daily routine.
Although this has its downsides: when I turned on the TV last Thursday for the football, I discovered that the Dutch national anthem now triggers a toilet-related Pavlovian response. Oh well, sometimes you need to cast a haddock to catch a cod (Dutch proverb, see Bruegel).
Philip Timmers (19) is a second-year bachelor’s student in International Development Studies. He likes gardening and is always up for some fun. He enjoys reading in nature on warm summer days.
