No Problemo on both fronts.

Are you making any progress?

You're bang on in thinking: "The nice thing about recording it too, is that if anything ends up being good or usable, I can reference back to it."

That's definitely the point of this method. It's an idea generator, which you can take further through repetition and workshopping.

Equally as important though is also paying attention to why something was good....all the subtleties that may have emerged with the initial improvisation. Elements such as dynamics, or voice quality, things that affect the vibe, emotional quality and the groove ie. laid back or pushed, or emphasis on syllables or words/how you said a specific lyric or line, melody ornamentation etc.

Those little things when preserved from the initial conception of the idea can sometimes make a "simple or bare bones idea" suddenly interesting as fuck...