Proverb or expression for someone taking on too much


What is an appropriate proverb or expression that means one has:



  1. Taken on too many tasks

  2. Set out to do something that one isn't qualified to do and hence probably will fail

  3. Set out to do something that probably is impossible to begin with



Answer



For doing something that is too hard, or doing too much of it at one time, I'd say you could go with



Biting off more than he/she can chew



which usually implies "taking on too much/too may tasks", but I think it's fair to stretch it to "taking on a task that's too hard for you". This is, to me, the most obvious idiom for this, but it's fairly cliche.


You could also use



Getting in over his/her head (as in, the water is too deep)



which implies swimming somewhere where your feet can't reach the bottom, and yet you're not a strong enough swimmer to handle it. You can also use



He's out of his depth/He's in too deep



which is the same metaphor. Neither of these imply failure, since the speaker may have misjudged the swimmer/chewer. I can't think of a phrase that combines these with the notion that the task is impossible; usually impossible tasks are impossible for everyone and not just for one person (swimming in deep water may be impossible for him, in which case he's getting in over his head, but it's not impossible for me, in which case I just swim there).


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