Sometimes progress stalls — not by choice, but from friction. In that pause, we face a question: wait, or do something else?

The unintuitive part? Either option makes sense at different points and in different contexts.

I ran into this dilemma on a small, simple project: stop and wait, or pick up something new? I was building a website for a musical project, and the domain name I bought didn’t go live right away, like it usually does. It was stuck. I couldn't publish to the site, even though I had built the page.

So I had to decide: wait for the domain, start something new, or go deeper on the current build?

I chose to parallelize — to put into motion more than one aspect of the project. I sent a support email to fix the domain issue, then shifted focus to a new page feature. It felt good to stay in motion—until that, too, hit a wall. So I asked for feedback, then pivoted again. Each pivot bought me time — but also another ball in the air.

Here's the catch: parallelizing often works — but it can backfire. I’ve pulled too many trains out of the station and can no longer manage them all at once. The context switch between each task becomes too exhausting. And no task quite gets to the finish line.

So sometimes the best thing to do is give yourself more freedom of time. Too many trains in motion? You lose track. But hold too tight? You can't adapt.

Give yourself some slack — not to idle, but to switch tracks when needed.

Remember to seek the balance — neither too tight, nor too loose. Enough slack to have energy to respond, enough activity to keep momentum.

When one door stalls, explore other paths—but don’t let go of the handle. When it opens, you’ll want to be ready to walk through.