For yeast, I exclusively use active-dry yeast instead of instant, since you have to bloom it first and it'll tell you whether the yeast is alive or not. That way, you don't end up wasting flour and other ingredients, depending on the recipe, I bloom it in warm water or milk / milk + cream that's been warmed to 100-110f (I use a instant read thermometer for it). After 10 minutes, I'll start working on the dough, sometimes I do get carried away doing other stuff, and because of that I feel like it takes longer to rise if it's like 30 minutes or so after blooming the yeast. The winter poses another problem for me since the temperature drops and it takes longer for anything to rise. Sometimes I preheat the oven, and turn it off after a couple minutes crack it open a bit to drop the temperature to around 80-90f and then rise the dough in there, but sometimes the oven's way too hot and ends up with a dough that has risen a lot, I cut down on the time of the secondary rise if that happens, and sometimes the oven isn't warm enough and still takes a longggg time to rise.

For pizza dough, the recipes I use call for a long rise in the fridge, it'll still rise in the fridge just at a slower pace, but it also develops it's unique flavour that way.

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