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I am looking for few nouns describing "a situation when one does too many things but achieve nothing important or useful".

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I doubt if you can find nouns which describe this, but there may be a few phrases that do. – Neil Jan 23 at 11:02
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Example? Certainly you want to apply that word to a very specific situation. So do describe it. Otherwise there are a million terms that might be applicable, but most actually won't be applicable in your case. – RegDwighт♦ Jan 23 at 11:09
Seems related to me: english.stackexchange.com/questions/101152/… – J.R. Jan 23 at 11:12
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@RegDwighт: I agree, and was thinking the same thing. I looked up futility in the thesaurus, and found fruitlessness, pointlessness, uselessness, vanity, ineffectiveness, inefficacy; failure, barrenness, unprofitability; impotence, hollowness, emptiness, forlornness, hopelessness – words that might answer the O.P.'s question, or describe our attempts to suggest a "right" answer to it. – J.R. Jan 23 at 11:17
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closed as not a real question by RegDwighт♦ Jan 23 at 13:04

It's difficult to tell what is being asked here. This question is ambiguous, vague, incomplete, overly broad, or rhetorical and cannot be reasonably answered in its current form. For help clarifying this question so that it can be reopened, see the FAQ.

3 Answers

up vote 1 down vote

If there's some resource shared between many targets/users in a way that each of them is short on it, you spread [the resource] thin over too many [targets].

In this case You spread your time thin over too many tasks.

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up vote 1 down vote

You're looking for the expression spinning your wheels.

Example: They're on the grind spinning their wheels.

You can also invent your own expressions such as:

Circling around in circles (suggesting no movement or direction inspite of activity)

They're pushing too hard, a door that needs pulling.

Or they're pulling what needs pushing.

They're pushing a brick wall.

They're busy chewing the stones.

They're busy chewing the rocks.

They're taking one step forward and two steps back.

They're trying to fleece leather out of a sheep.

They're working hard counting the hairs on their own heads.

They're making about turns to get there.
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up vote 0 down vote

It may not be exactly what you want, but a word in roughly the same semantic area is counterproductive.

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