I do a lot of that in my solo project. I would add to your list "write a commit comment". It's like keeping a journal you can go back to. It gives me time to stop and think what have I done, what needs to be done next.

I don't much read my git-commit-comments but I think it is useful to write them.

I don't usually branch, at least at this stage of the project. Probably yes when I go to production when there is a need to fix bugs in the released version(s) without having to put all the latest code into it.

Even without branching commits are a good way to save the latest known good state I can easily go back to if things didn't work out.