[datashovel]

I personally would suggest thinking about the project in your spare time first. I find that it's so much easier to context switch if my objective is only to think about a problem I want to solve. This way I can do this a lot more frequently throughout the week with little to no effort.

And only once I've thought enough about it, and am comfortable I have a solid plan and have carved out a precise scope / objective for my coding session, will I open an editor and start coding.

The trick I think is once you can visualize exactly what you want to do you can knock it out relatively quickly. I think it can become stressful if you're always sitting down to code in your spare time, when you're not prepared with a specific plan. You can waste a lot of time spinning your wheels when you do that, which in turn can make you feel like you're wasting a lot of time and have nothing to show for it.