If we realise we have Our Work Cut Out For Us we know a difficult task lies ahead and there’s going to be a lot of work involved. The first recorded appearance of the phrase with the meaning of “more than one can handle” is in A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens’ 1843 novel. The phrase comes from tailoring and practice of having someone cut out patterns before the stitching begins. Whilst this might seem to have half the work done, such a practice makes life more stressful for the tailor, as cutting the work out in advance is actually much quicker than the tailoring. Therefore, piles of material would mount up. It’s easy to imagine a tailor explaining he’s busy because he has his “work cut out for him”.