I spent almost the whole day composing. Sometimes, there's composing in which you're moving things around in some editor to iterate on a few seconds of music at a time. There is also the kind where you do a lot of coding. Both of those aspects of composing feel like you're doing stuff.
Today, I listened to a seven-minute piece, changed one or two things, then listened again. It's fun, but whoa is it time-consuming. And I feel like maybe I should be busier? But there is no way you can avoid this, if you feel that the way the piece sounds as a whole is important (which you may not, and that is sometimes legit).