Careful assuming these terminological subtleties are universally shared. Where I work now, 'ratholing' is something you do in conversations, where you go deep i

Careful assuming these terminological subtleties are universally shared. Where I work now, 'ratholing' is something you do in conversations, where you go deep into a specific problem that isn't relevant to the real purpose of the meeting. 'rabbitholing' is more tumbling down a series of investigative avenues to see where they lead, to a single purpose - and it's not necessarily a bad thing! sometimes you come out of the rabbithole with a solution. And 'yak shaving' is tedious work that is not obviously actually doing the task at hand, yet nonetheless, and in spite of your best efforts to find an alternative, it turns out to be necessary before the real work can begin. None of which I think comport exactly with OPs definitions.