I think that's how most people start out. You're not really doing it all wrong.Coding with much momentum requires experience(which will come). To add to that, you don't always need to try to code by looking at the screen. Take a paper and pencil, try to understand what you are trying to accomplish. Make sure you build a few connections from the problem to the goal and eliminate all possible "wrong paths" in trying to achieve the goal. Trust me, this really works well and can save some time.You can always look it up on google, stack exchange,etc. But in all reality, most developers tend to hit roadblocks and spend quite a while on a maybe smaller problem.