It seems like forever and a day since Congress could walk and chew gum at the same time. That’s a lesson that President Trump and his advisers are struggling to grasp, even those he plucked from Capitol Hill to occupy key posts.

In the week ahead, lawmakers already face an immediate Friday deadline of keeping federal agencies funded through the remainder of the year. Yet Trump’s advisers continue to toss big items into the mix that they would like to see accomplished, giving the appearance of a frenzied search for wins ahead of Saturday’s symbolically important 100th day of the new presidency.

Some Trump advisers have pushed for a vote this week on health-care legislation, even though there are no signs that ongoing talks between moderate and conservative Republicans have produced a real breakthrough.

Then, seemingly out of nowhere, Trump declared in an interview Friday with the Associated Press that on Wednesday he would unveil his administration’s proposal for a massive overhaul of the tax code. It would result, he said, in the biggest ‘‘tax cut ever,’’ despite ongoing gridlock in Congress over competing tax proposals — in a process that started more than six years ago.

Any one of these items would be a big enough lift in an era when Congress regularly struggles with the most basic of tasks. Mix them together over a couple days, and it’s the legislative equivalent of trying to pull the pin on three grenades at once. If you’re not careful, all three might blow up in your face.

The model of strategic chaos — creating many different targets and never taking on much bloodshed — worked well in the campaign, particularly in a sprawling GOP primary when, at any given moment, Trump faced 15 or more opponents.

But in governance, it doesn’t work. Congress needs focus, not flurry.

The volatility has Democrats shaking their heads, knowing full well from their own experience when they last controlled Congress and the White House the peril of trying to do too many things all at once.

‘‘Floating the possibility that the House could vote on this amended health care bill next week is irresponsible when the government could shut down on April 29,’’ Representative Joseph Crowley of New York, a member of House Democratic leadership, said in a statement. ‘‘The focus must be on keeping the government funded — the most basic legislative responsibility we have.’’

There’s a good chance that the week ahead becomes a lot of sound and fury but not much productivity.

The talk of legislation to revise the 2010 Affordable Care Act could fade as negotiations continue well into the spring, and no one is sure what Trump might spell out on his tax proposals.

Also, given the time constraints, most insiders expect Congress to do what it does best in times of crisis — buy more time — by approving a stopgap bill to keep the federal government funded at current levels for an additional week or two to hammer out full spending levels for the rest of 2017.

Such a low-octane finish to a week that begins with such promise would be the latest example of how difficult it is to try to pull off more than one big thing at a time.

In 2009, after they passed a massive stimulus bill, congressional Democrats began driving toward approving the ACA, but House Democrats also tried to pass a bill to rein in climate change, including a very complicated system of trading for carbon credits.

The same panel instructed with crafting most of the health law, the Energy and Commerce Committee, pushed through the cap-and-trade legislation, passing it in June 2009.

The full House passed the climate bill, after a bitter fight between moderate and liberal Democrats, but the Senate never took up the legislation.

The Energy and Commerce committee finally moved on to health care but did not finish until the last day of the summer session. The full House headed out into the fateful August 2009 recess, where Democrats faced angry constituents, creating more delays for many more months in passing the ACA.

The Senate had its own version of juggling too many issues. In early 2013, Democrats pushed legislation almost simultaneously for strict background checks on gun purchases and an overhaul of immigration laws. Both proposals went through the Judiciary Committee, and both were politically sensitive for the half dozen or so Democrats from conservative states.

Eventually, Democrats pulled the gun bill and focused on immigration. They passed it in June 2013, only to see it never considered in the House.

Some Democrats believe, in retrospect, that a narrower focus would have been the better path to follow.