This sort of this definitely crosses my mind a lot.  An approach that I have started to adopt is the notion that when you get your initial inspiration or idea for a song, you should run with it and build up the project as much as you can right away.  Obviously this shouldn't take away from the quality... but if you have this vision for the track that you say you do, you should try to create a rough draft as soon as you can so that when you revisit the project, you have placeholders for all of those initial, creative ideas.

I can certainly relate to what you're getting at here!

I know I didn't say much, but I struggle with the same thing.  I thought I would share my uneducated thoughts at the very least.  Hahaha.  Cheers, dude.  Best of luck with your tunes.

Haha nah dude thats plenty helpful, it makes sense to me. I'm definitely going to revisit some of my old projects and see what I hear long after the fact. Cheers man!

Definitley for sure the Ill Gates course is amazing.
I agree for the most part with everyone else, my main addition would be that you should focus on creating an idea with your music first and foremost. A track that doesn't take you on a journey or evoke some sort of emotion isn't really worth listening to imo. As far as how that applies to workflow, think about what element defines a track the most for you, for many people that's the drums (for me it's the chords and primary sound design) nail that down very quickly so that you don't fall into any ingrained habits. DOnt dont dont start all your tracks with the same process because after a while they'll all sound the same. Of course mixing processes come into play at some point but writing a track should be a much separate thing than arranging or mixing it. A rough sketch is always a good idea, sooner or later you'll lose the feeling of the track because you overfiddle with small mistakes too early.

Also if you yourself stuck just leave the track asap. Coming back a month or two later, for me, is much easier than trying to force out a specific track from start to finish.

yeah this happens to pretty much everyone. The best thing you can do is try to work efficiently and quickly so you don't get tired of your own song from hearing it too many times. Making sure your library is organized and dedicating time to just doing sound design (while not arranging) can help a lot with this.. for example, having producing sessions where all you are doing is making patches, racks, processing drums, making risers and transition fx etc. and compiling all of those into an organized library while not worrying about an arrangement or any track in particular.. then when you are ready to compose and arrange a song, you have a bunch of tools and sounds at your fingertips and you won't derail your concentration by going back and forth between sound design and composition.

however, personally i still will do sound design stuff while composing just because i like to... but it definitely does make my process less efficient than it could be. When i reach a point where i find myself getting tired of a tune, i will usually just take a break from it for a few days and work on something else for a bit so i can come back to it with a fresh perspective. Sometimes when i do this i end up not finishing things because i decide its not good enough, but sometimes a break is all i need and the "magic" comes back

just keep at it though! this part is difficult for sure, but the more you do it the easier it will get, nothing can replace experience

Here are a couple of things to keep in mind:

- It's way easier to revise than it is to create from scratch.
If you get an idea and are feeling motivated, run with it. If you stop to work on any one section too much, there's a chance you'll lose track of the bigger picture then struggle to come up with other sections. Get a rough outline of what you have in your head, then go back and flesh it out later. If you have any ideas along the way for other things, write them down so you don't forget. If you're in the "arrange/compose" mentality, you should compose and arrange. If you switch to sound design or mixing, it'll be much harder to get back on the composition train. Kinda like how you could concentrate on studies and homework for a while, then check Facebook for two seconds, and then just not want to even look at your homework anymore. Think Newton's First Law of Motion

-Not all aspects of production are equally enjoyable, but all are required for a quality production.
As producers we bear the burden of ALL aspects of a musical product (well, us with integrity anyway). Mixing, for example, is often not going to be as enjoyable as composition or even sound design, but you have to follow through. If you leave a track half finished without mixing, you've only improved in whatever you worked on in the track. You'll make no progress in mixing. Focus on various aspects individually, but make sure at the end of the day you're as well rounded as you can be.

-Same applies to sections in a song.
The breakdown or outro might not be as exciting to work on as the drop or chorus of your track, but they're still important. A great track isn't just a great chorus (though you could get away with that), it's a great intro, breakdown, buildup, etc. If you leave a track 3/4 done you'll miss out on making progress in whatever you left out.

These are just some general tips I like to follow, obviously not universal rules that you NEED to follow. They've worked out for me, and they make sense, so I share. Hope this helped