Some work looks still because the important changes happen beneath the finished surface.

Progress is easy to see in some kinds of work and invisible in others. A person who appears to be doing nothing may be in the part where the structure is being rearranged, or where a wrong approach is quietly being abandoned, and none of that shows on the outside until much later. Judging by visible motion mistakes the surface for the whole.

Before concluding that something has stalled, ask what has changed underneath rather than what has appeared. Ask the person what they are working through. And when your own progress is unseen, keep a private record so you can tell slow from stopped.