be off the (starting) blocks

To be working on a certain activity. (Runners are positioned at the "starting blocks" at the beginning of a race.) The construction crew is already off the blocks, so you need to call them right now if you want to stop the project.

Common Names:

Name	Pronounced	Usage
Ya	-	Chinese
Tracee	TRAY-see	English
Kiran	-	Indian, Hindi, Marathi, Kannada, Telugu, Malayalam, Tamil, Gujarati, Nepali, Urdu
Carson	['ka:sn]
Ragna	-	Icelandic, Norwegian, Danish, Swedish, Ancient Scandinavian
Kian (2)	-	English (Modern)