Personally, before I got a computer that could handle 80 tabs open at once, I made a list of all the sources I found for each person that would tempt me to go off my path and go back to them later. My first goal usually is to connect a profile to the World Tree if possible. If it's not, then it's to just go back as far as I can, and then go and build out the tree horizontally.
So, let's say you have a grandmother. You look up her sources, and you find her in a census with her siblings and parents. Oh look, more sibling sources, how exciting!.... write those down, make a profile for her parents, focus on them. Then you find a source that lists their parents, along with their siblings, maybe a probate record... source it on the parents and their parents, write it down in a notepad file for the other siblings. And then keep going back until you can't anymore or until there are profiles someone else made that link up. Once they're connected, go aaaall the way back to the beginning of that list you made and start working on those siblings of your grandparents and working down their trees (their children, their grand children, et cetera), until your notepad list is empty, and then work your way up again. Of course, add to the bottom of the list any more temptations to wander off track. You might never actually empty that notepad list, but you'll always be busy and having fun researching and sourcing.