Gotta put out some fires

Meaning

Used in professional or personal contexts to describe solving immediate, stressful problems. It implies you are constantly reacting to emergencies rather than planning.

Busy, professional

Used in a sentence

• I cannot make the lunch meeting today, I have to stay here and put out some fires.
• Working in retail means spending most of your day putting out fires for customers.
• Every time I try to start a project, I end up putting out fires instead.