spread oneself thin
death march
bang one's head against a brick wall
bring owls to Athens
overcommit
overcommitted
too many cooks spoil the broth
hum and haw
while the grass grows, the steed starves
promise the moon
squirrel cage
overprogram
howl at the moon
faff
scutwork
too many balls in the air
chase one's tail
push one's luck
fritter
punk out
overplan
underseek
procrastinatingly
scope creep
overtask
underplan
overkill
flood out
overwhelm
rubegoldbergian
deluge
problematic
above water
overchallenge
abortion
drop in the bucket
miscarry
run to waste
push shit uphill
overambition
be a hundred years too early
barrier
slack off
time-poor
overambitiousness
overcomplicate
underchallenge
shit out of luck
roadblock
like rats from a sinking ship
underresource
candy store problem
mug's game
overaccommodate
overshoot
overqualified
embuggerance
wherever you go, there you are
overhelp
go to the wall
close only counts in horseshoes
underchallenging
overdeal
write checks one can't cash
pull teeth
perendinate
procrastination is the thief of time
overambitiously
futz
exercise in futility
persist
frob
oversparingly
fall seven times, stand up eight
distributed computing
wankle
wade through
premature optimization
difficultate
short-sightedness
overreadiness
no pain, no gain
overtedious
take one's sweet time
the end of one's rope
shilly-shally
hamstring
save
unreliability
nail Jell-O to a tree
pound-foolish
fly too close to the sun
hamster wheel
make unnecessary
sit on one's ass
put off
keep the show on the road
bite off more than one can chew
drag one's feet