English Dictionary

when you're up to your neck in alligators, it's hard to remember that your initial objective was to drain the swamp

ことわざ

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.

日本語の意味

最初に掲げた目的が見失われ、細かい事柄や本筋から外れたタスクにとらわれること / 当初の目標よりも、付随するあるいは些細な作業に執着して、主要な意図が薄れてしまう状態

意味（1）

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.

when you're up to your neck in alligators （ canonical ）

it's hard to remember that your initial objective was to drain the swamp （ canonical ）