How does an AC circuit get anything done? if alternating current switches directions back and forth periodically it seems like to me that current would go forward a bit and then almost immediately back track the exact same distance, if this is the case then how does AC ever get to where we want it to? Could I be misconceiving AC in some way? 
 A: 
and then almost immediately back track the exact same distance

Current travels, very approximately, one foot per nanosecond. Mains 50Hz cycles have a period of 20,000,000 nanoseconds. It's very far from "almost immediately".
A: Imagine you have a crosscut saw with two handles, one on each end and a person holding each handle. The saw rests on a log to be cut. One person pulls their end of the saw and the teeth cut into the log. Then the other person pulls their end and the blade comes back, cutting further into the log. 
The point is that the saw can cut the log even though it only goes back and forth, retracing its path over and over. In the same sense, AC power can perform useful work on the "pull" part of the AC cycle as well as the "push" part.  
A: 
If alternating current switches directions back and forth periodically it seems like to me that current would go forward a bit and then almost immediately back track the exact same distance, if this is the case then how does AC ever get to where we want it to? 

See this microscopic view of current, and understand that the electrons do not travel fast within the conductor, but have a drift velocity. This drift velocity , according to the classical electrodynamics equations, is what generates the current measured in the lab. In a DC circuits the electrons move slowly towards the potential , in an AC current they move back and forth, but the macroscopically generated  current has a direction from high potential to low potential.
The reason that AC has prevailed in the transmission of electric power is practical considerations. When DC is transmitted one has to generate AC at home to get motors running, for example. 
A: The wording of your question suggests that you might have a fundamental misconception about how electricity works (quite a common one, unfortunately, because introductory courses in electronics often get it wrong).  In an electric circuit, electric currents do not directly transfer energy.  Rather, energy is transferred through the electromagnetic fields in the space surrounding the wires.  The only purpose of the wires and other components is to guide the fields to the right places.
This is quite counterintuitive, since electromagnetic fields are invisible and we are used to thinking of electricity as something that flows inside wires.  However, the conclusion is easy to demonstrate.  The directional energy flux in an electromagnetic field (the Poynting vector) is equal to $\mathbf{S} = \mathbf{E} \times \mathbf{H}$ where E and H are the electric field and the magnetic auxiliary field (in simple cases, $\mathbf{H} = \mathbf{B}/\mu$).
In the simple circuit drawn below, the electric field points downward (since the voltage is positive in the upper wire).  Meanwhile, the magnetic field circles around the current-carrying wires; thus, it points into the screen inside the circuit.  Using the right-hand rule for cross products, we can see that the Poynting vector points to the right.  Thus, power flows from the battery to the load.  One can show that this energy flux is sufficient to explain all of the power delivered to the load.

What if we replace the battery with an AC voltage source?  Now when the voltage becomes negative, both the electric field and the current (and therefore the magnetic field) reverse their direction.  These changes cancel each other out and the Poynting vector still points to the right.  Therefore, power continues to flow from the voltage source to the load – even though every electron in the circuit stays in nearly the same place.
A: Alternating current transmits powered by varying electric fields which makes the electron oscillate this oscillating energy transmitted through the wire in the form of electric fields and the energy is transmitted where it needs to be transmitted. 
For example in a electric heater the alternating current oscillates electron in the filament which produces heat. 
But in dc heater there is a continuous flow of electron which generates heat due to resistance.
