It's crazy that I found this today...I just started something similar except instead of coding every day I set a goal of 4 hours per week and I use Beeminder to track my progress. Many of the benefits you listed are spot on especially "the feeling of making progress is just as important as making actual progress." Now that I have children, coding for 8 hours on a Saturday just doesn't work. To reach my current goal of 4 hours per week, I plan on coding for 30 minutes in the morning or night where I can but I also have arranged with my wife one weeknight where I leave the house and go code at a coffee shop for 2-3 hours.