Today when I said that, I found myself wondering the origin of that phrase. It had to start somewhere.
So I went to the alleged source of all knowledge, Google, to see if I could find the origin of the phrase. Was it a TV show where some character uttered those memorable words?
Guess what? Google does NOT know everything. I could find no reference that said John Doe said it on Dump Sit Com.
However, I did find it mentioned in the following places:
(1) a book by Kevin DeYoung, Crazy Busy: A (Mercifully) Short Book About a Really Big Problem. This book won the 2014 Christian Book of the Year Award
(2) a 2012 post on Positively Positive
(3) a post, 14 Phrases We Should All Give Up in 2020, by an ER doctor
(4) a post translating the phrase into Hindi
(5) multiple online dictionaries.
Will I stop using the phrase as the ER doctor suggests in the post? Probably not. It's just so descriptive. Of course, my mother had a phrase that meant the same thing: "Running around like a chicken with its head cut off."
Takeaway Truth
I did NOT learn who created the phrase, but I did learn the phrase has made its way around the world probably for the same reason I cited for using it. It perfectly describes one's state of having more to do than time in which to do it—and it sounds better than that chicken phrase.
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