when you're up to your neck in alligators, it's hard to remember that your initial objective was to drain the swamp en · X
Meanings
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It is easy to lose sight of one's initial objective, becoming caught up in subtasks or in tasks only tangentially related to the original goal.
For quotations using this term, see Citations:when you're up to your neck in alligators, it's hard to remember that your initial objective was to drain the swamp.
Relateds
if you find yourself in a hole, the first thing to do is stop digging · XY problem · bikeshedding · yak shaving