Lagom

QUOTE

Sir Thomas Malory once said…

“Enough is as good as a feast.”

(English writer and author)

CONCEPT

Lagom

Lagom is a Swedish concept meaning just the right amount—not too much, not too little. It reflects a cultural preference for balance, sufficiency, and sustainability rather than excess or deprivation.

Unlike minimalism, which often emphasizes subtraction, lagom emphasizes calibration. The goal is harmony. Enough resources to thrive. Enough effort to grow. Enough rest to endure.

STORY

What the … Fika?

In the mid-1970s, Sweden quietly ran a national experiment that confused outside observers. While much of the industrialized world was pushing longer hours and faster output, Swedish policymakers and companies began asking a different question: 

How much work is actually enough?

The shift was visible in factories, offices, and schools. Instead of maximizing hours, Sweden began emphasizing work-life balance—reasonable schedules, generous parental leave, and protected vacation time.

The goal was not leisure for its own sake, but sustainability. Exhausted workers, policymakers argued, were less creative, less healthy, and less productive over time.

One practice embodied this mindset more than any other: fika.

Fika is often described as a “coffee break,” but that translation misses the point. In Swedish workplaces, fika is a scheduled pause (similar to a Spanish siesta) where colleagues stop working, drink coffee, eat something small, and talk. About anything. Work talk is optional. Participation is expected. Skipping it to “get more done” is often frowned upon.

To outsiders, fika looked inefficient. Why interrupt the day? Why not push through?

But studies in Swedish organizations told a different story. Teams that took regular breaks showed higher long-term productivity, better cooperation, and lower burnout. Employees returned to tasks more focused, not less.

The pause wasn’t indulgence—it was calibration. Just the right amount of effort, followed by the right amount of recovery.

Sweden consistently ranks high in global measures of happiness, workplace satisfaction, and innovation—despite working fewer hours on average than many peer nations. The lesson isn’t that fika was a magic solution, but that balance provides compounding results.