It is depending on which way you are heading. I am taking Rt56 west to Rt5 south around 7:00am, and it has no traffic any more. But if you try to take the same route later time, it might be different a little. At evening, merging from Rt5 north to Rt56 east is a little headache due to heavy traffic.
Now, it looks like they are trying to add one more lane around up to Carmel Valley exist, but not sure if it works better.

In the future, the traffic will get worse since many houses are getting built in Del Sur/Pacific Highland etc.

By the way, I am not sure of how people are arranging their work hours there in San Diego. They come late and leave early.