I agree with others, consider shooting in A or S. Most of the time, when you're in full manual, you're only going to select the aperture or shutter that your camera meter tells you to anyway, so why not let it have at?
Chimp! I don't see any point in
not looking at the shot you got and using the exposure compensation to make minor adjustments to your exposure - bump it up if darks are too dark, or down when whites are too blown out. I find it a more relaxed shooting routine.
Maybe spend some time on some creative ideation. I have a bad habit of thinking "sunlight.. must go out and find photos!" So most of the time, I'm shooting reactively and the results are often gutless, uninspired, and bleurgh.
When I take the time to sit down and come up with ideas of photos I want to capture, or concepts I want to play with, I tend to get giddy about photography. This is proactive creativity, rather than reactive photography.
Scout, not shoot. Go looking for photo opportunities rather than photos. Take photos, but don't try and bag it in one go. Take photos as preliminary sketches or scouting shots - photos that you can take home and examine.. identify locations that might work, and obstacles to avoid when you go back - in better light, or different light or conditions. It's part of the process of concepting, but you've taken the pressure off yourself by not going out to bag it but as a longer process of getting everything together for the killer shot.
That's the stuff I do when I'm where you are. Maybe there's something in there you can use
).
