In the past, we used to code for long periods of time and commit everything at the end. The problem with this approach is that sometimes you follow a path to which you might want to return, or you might follow a path that turns out to be inefficient. If you commit both early and often, you can keep track of all such changes. This is a more efficient way of programming.
Of course, before you make the final commit, and before you send the push to the main repository, you should clean up and ensure the code has a certain degree of quality and testing.
I find that every time I code, even for a short while, my instinct is to write a commit, and keep track of my work. Even if I add only a part of the code, or use the staging capabilities to do some selective commits, I find that Git gives me a much cleaner workflow. I can be confident in my changes from start to end, and I rarely lose any code or any snippet with which I was happy.
