Do you have things on Master when you're writing / recording / producing (important info: in my case I'm talking about strictly electronic, in-the-box music - I don't have hardware synths or FX, don't record "real" instruments or vocals)
I always struggle with this...

Option #1 If I don't put anything - typically a mid/side EQ, a clipper, a compressor, a limier / maximizer - on there, I find the difference after adding a simple mastering chain so stark, that I have to go back to the sound design, arrangement & mixing to fix stuff which I should've noticed earlier, but didn't.
Option #2 On the other hand when I already have stuff on the master then I feel like I'm constantly in the "make it sound as good as possible" mode at every step of the way, which clearly hinders the pace of my progress at the most crucial part of the process, i.e. capturing the musical idea.
It seems, whatever I do in most cases I end up with constant back & forth.

For now I've settled for a workflow, when I only put stuff on Master after I've managed to create a bit of music that's representative of the whole piece (e.g. a chorus, with majority of crucial elements - pads, leads, bass, drums; in place), but perhaps there's other ways?
Intuitively I feel that #1 is the better approach, because it's more important to have interesting, captivating music idea properly captured, than it being bland and boring, but sounding pristine. But I find it's so hard to fight the urge to make it sound better along the way

How do you guys cope with it?