顾此失彼

gù cǐ shī bǐ

unable to attend to everything at once

Character by character

顾gù
attend to

此cǐ
this

失shī
lose

彼bǐ
that

工作太多，他常常顾此失彼。

With so much work, he often can't keep on top of everything.

Tone: negative (criticism).

For juggling too many tasks at once.

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