git rebase -i on a master with no changes.

As a sole developer, I am pulled in two different directions when using git feature-branch style. I want to make sure I never lose my work so I check in frequently- any time I start a change that might ultimately fail, I commit my current code so I can recover it. But I also want a clean, concise and useful history.

After reading this article I tried 'git rebase -i master' on my feature branch even though the master had no changes since starting the feature branch. This seems to work and allows me clean up my feature branch before I merge it to master.

Is there a better way to do this or are there problems with this?