I start pretty blocky and maybe a little manic like you, but I gradually get into a cool groove of refinement and meditation as things start coming together until you hear the "click."

Then I look at it the next day and totally hate it.

I start off by trying to understand all the requirements and constraints as well as possible. And the goals of the business and the user. Talking to the owners, and users (if possible) and writing my own brief, even if there already is one. I'll also take a bit of time to understand the content that I'm working with.

Next I'll try and explore as many solutions as possible in the lowest fidelity I can, normally pen and paper. Starting with the simplest solution and moving towards the most complex solution.

Once I feel I've explored all the main possible solutions, I will review them all with the owners of the product/service /website and discuss the pros and cons of each one, finally making a decision of one to go with.

Then if there is a sufficient brand identity and / visual language defined then I'll start mocking up the key screens in sketch. If there isn't I'll focus first on the visual style and create a style tile type with a bunch of styled elements so that we can agree on colour, typefaces, imagery and iconography.

When I have first draft solution I'm happy with I'll share it (flat images, prototypes, html etc...) with the owners and users for discussion and feedback.

This will always bring up a lot of questions and flaws, so I'll create another iteration adressing them. Then I'll share again and repeat.

When I (and the owner) feel I like it is ready for production I'll talk to whoever is responsible for building it (although it's often me) and agree on the level of documentation they require, then produce it.

After build I will review and test the work and raise any issue or bugs.

When the design has made it into production I monitor the metrics via mixpanel (or similar service) and see if it has achieved the results set in the requirements. If not I go back to the drawing board. If it has, I go back to the drawing board and start on the next thing :-)

Hope that helps, wrote this quite quickly on my phone.

In a nutshell, we spend a lot of time moving through moods, wireframes, and then finally into visual designs. Moods set the tone for the aesthetic, wireframes give us a chance to whiteboard and flesh out layout/strategy, and the visual design phase allows us to bring these elements together.

Within this process we avoid being stifled by a blank canvas and already have a very strong sense of why we're doing things, and inside what kind of aesthetic direction. Something to think about!

You're making your design process sound like a sprint to some pre-defined end goal. Nothing is perfect the first time. We all go back and iterate to make it the best we can with the amount of information and constraints we have at that given time. Also, with more experience you'll stop missing a lot of the stages you're skipping now.

As much as I try to slow my process down, I often have the same problem. After arriving at the "final" solution, though, I try to take a step back and revisit those details (requirements, constraints, goals). Many times that happens after a short break from the project, to give my mind time to rest and find that sense of peace. Then when I return to the project, I'll compare my solution to those details to see when needs to be changed, what could be better, and what's working well.

Here's an article about building a better design process. Hope this helps! https://getflywheel.com/layout/build-better-design-process/