It’s a common phrase here in the Midwest.

“I just piddled around the house today.”

“He’s just piddling around in his workshop.”

“Just piddling.”

The Merriam-Webster definition of piddling is as an adjective meaning “trivial, paltry.” And it always seems to be paired with that “just.”

But there’s so much more nuance to piddling.

When someone says they’re “just piddling around the house/the garden/the workshop,” they’re not doing nothing. Piddling is a verb. It’s an action. Someone who’s piddling is doing something. They’re not lounging, or doomscrolling, or bedrotting.

But piddling is also not about being hurried. It’s not driven by an external goal or structure. Which is why I think so many people precede it with that “just.”

We tend to measure our worth, and our time’s worth, by its output. By whether or not we met some external goal. Completing a project for work, making money, achieving something.

But piddling doesn’t hinge on the output. Time spent piddling is time spent doing the things our soul craves. Gardening. Tinkering. Even cleaning or organizing. Little things that don’t necessarily produce an outcome that other people would notice or appreciate.

So we “just piddle.”

But piddling might be the most important thing you do today.