yeah i think that is the correct way to do puzzles, over time it will improve your calculation ability
Should I try and calculate all the moves before making my first move in a chess puzzle?
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Good question! First how NOT to do it. Just try a move and try another one when you get a red flash warning. Actually, when you take puzzling seriously you have already lost at the first red flag!
Does that imply that you must see everything ahead? Not necessarily! In off-line solving competitions for compositions like "#3" or "win" you get a complete chess set at your disposal where you can fool around as much as you like and move all the pieces and so on. The only thing that matters is what you write on the piece of paper handed to you by the organization. Those moves have to be flawless and include the moves for both sides.
To do the same on chess.com you will need to consider the Solving GUI as the piece of paper in an off-line competition, so the moves you enter there need to be flawless. Before you do that you can use your private off-line or online line chess set where you can fool around with the puzzle parts. No one cares what you do on that board except of course you can't use a chess engine.
Note that this procedure is still a lot simpler than off-line solving since you can skip the moves by the opponent. You get those for free from the Solving GUI. And don't be shocked when you experience a real off-line solving competition and it's harder than you imagined! There are for instance tough time limits like 15 minutes per puzzle on average!
However, to challenge yourself to the max, it is worth considering to solve a puzzle all in your head as you would need to do in a game. This is doable for 2-movers, 3-movers and some long-movers and endgame studies - but commonly not for the hardest compositions! Still it is good visualization/calculation training to try!
Btw, many puzzles posted on chess.com in the Forums are so much engine-based that you stand no chance of solving them. Some are ugly as well as the posters are not aware that puzzles and compositions need artistic elements to be enjoyed!
Recently, whenever I try to complete a chess puzzle, I try to calculate all of my moves before I even make the first one even though the first move is obviously correct, this often gets quite challenging especially if it's a 3-move or higher puzzle. My logic is that it will improve my ability to calculate in-game. I wanted to ask everybody’s opinion on this as to whether you think it'll help or if they have any other methods.