run (a)round in circles

To waste one's time and energy engaging in trivial, aimless, or futile activities. I tried to get an outline drafted for my thesis, but my ideas were so jumbled in my head that I just kept running round in circles. The committee spent all afternoon trying to come up with a new PR proposal, but they ran around in circles the whole time.

Common Names:

Name	Pronounced	Usage
Aideen	AY-deen	Irish
Vlado	-	Croatian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovene, Bulgarian, Macedonian
Elnathan	el-NAY-thən (English)	Biblical
Hubert	HYOO-bərt (English), HOO-bert (German), HUY-bərt (Dutch), uy-BER (French), HUW-bert (Polish)	English, German, Dutch, French, Polish, Ancient Germanic
Halcyon	-	Various
Elle	EL	English (Modern)