How long do you spend planning your next move?

I love spending hours on the analysis board before I make my next move, esp in a complicated situation with several possible options, helps me visualise plans I probably wouldn't have thought of just by staring at the board. For example, against trcyskenpo at the moment, between moves 14- 22, and again from 22 and 27, I spent near 2 days coming up with each sequence, just to become a pawn up, and prevent his king from castling. And for my last move 33, I spent a worrying amount of time planning what the next 4 or 5 moves will be. Against another player, Zubernator, I made a right hash of my opening, trying something I've never done or researched before, and had to resort to the analysis board for several hours to get me out of trouble.

Am I wierd and taking this too seriously or do others do the same too?

In correspondence chess I normally spend about 90 minutes on my move, about the length of a football match. But in OTB you can't do that a lot more 10 minutes!

I'm concentrating on correspondance chess at the moment. Plus the otb games I have played, I've been at work and constantly having to close the screen down as the boss comes over every 5 minutes. I kinda figure, once I get more positions, moves and theory under my belt, I'll be able to apply to otb where the timer I find is a huge distraction for me. Its like sitting in an exam, and you have 10 minutes left to write a damn essay. Mind just goes blank!

In all fairness, on correspondence games it is reccommended that you spend the 2-3 days per move analysing the situation. It is often said that it is better to look at the board, go away for a day and look again, as you may see things that you never saw before.

In answer to your question, I usually analyse for a couple of possible moves and decide upon the best move, usually within an hour. I do not heed my advice above ;-)

That sounds excessive. But whatever. If you enjoy it, it's your time.