I spend more time than I should learning about learning, instead of learning the material itself.

Maybe you're doing this because it's more comfortable that actually learning the material. If I have six hours to cut down a tree and I spend the first five hours sharpening my axe, I'm probably not going about this the right way unless I'm very good at sharpening.

I have to carefully comb through all the concepts and equations and structure them intuitively in a way I see fit. I hate not having a very fundamental understanding of the things I'm working with.

It sounds like you're reading the chapter very closely before trying the exercises. Perhaps you'd learn much faster by trying the exercises before you feel ready. It might feel uncomfortable for you. But maybe it's worth it to solve the problem of being uncomfortable with not understanding.

On the other hand, maybe you really do need to read the chapter carefully before doing the exercises. But you should at least try not doing that.