From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishrun around (also run round British English) phrasal verb1 RUNto run in an area while you are playing The children were running around in the garden.2 informalBUSY/HAVE A LOT TO DO to be very busy doing many small jobs Maria was running around trying to get the house tidy. We were all running around like headless chickens (=trying to do a lot of things, in an anxious or disorganized way). → runaround → run→ See Verb table
Examples from the Corpus
running around like headless chickens• The arcade section is hideous, featuring computer-controlled players running around like headless chickens and never attempting a tackle. 