My designer sends me work and I reply five days later, sometimes week(s) later.

Not because I don't care. Because I always feel like I have more important things to do. I want to code, build features, push the product forward. From where I sit, I have the biggest impact when I'm building.

But the math doesn't work.

I pay the people who help me with Edicek: a designer, a marketer, a video editor. Experts are expensive, usually well above the market average. And when one of them can't continue because I haven't replied, it's not just blocking them. It's blocking the entire product, because everything is connected.

So the rule I keep reminding myself of is simple. When someone asks me for feedback, that is the most valuable thing I can do right now. Start the day by unblocking the people who depend on me, then do my own work.

The same thing works in the other direction, when you're the one being paid. Fast responses, fast delivery. Nobody ever told me directly that my quick replies won them over, but people see what the market standard is. It's the cheapest way to stand out and look worth your rate.

And there's a pattern I catch myself in more than any other. When I sit on a reply, it's usually not a time problem. It's that I'm not happy with the result. I don't want to deal with it right now, I don't want the confrontation, I don't want to dig into the fact that what I expected isn't what I got. So I move to work that makes more sense to me.

Because when I'm happy with the work, I reply immediately. Same when I can see we're at least heading in the right direction.

A slow reply is rarely about the calendar. It's a verdict I haven't said out loud yet. And if it keeps happening with the same person, that's the real signal: they're probably not right for the project.

I'm not writing this as someone who solved it. I still reply late. This is a habit I'm only starting to build now, because nobody ever told me about it. Nobody warned me that this is part of the job. So I'm fighting it on my own, starting now.

At least I know exactly what it costs.