What one phrase or idiom describes situations (see examples below), in which people funnel their efforts in the wrong direction?
A boy wants to have a cup of coffee, so he buys a notebook in a stationery store and starts writing 100 times on each page "A cup of coffee", hoping that he is going to get a cup of coffee in this way. However, he never bothers to go to the kitchen and see if he can simply prepare coffee for himself in the kitchen...
A band is going to have a concert tomorrow, but they are not ready yet – they still need to rehearse more. So, instead of rehearsing they simply try to re-arrange the chairs on which they are sitting, hoping that the proper arrangement of chairs will ensure their perfect performance on the next day.
A girl wants to learn how to swim. So she reads tons of books about swimming – how to build swimming pools, biographies of famous swimmers – yet she never even tries swimming by herself...