I do that too - particularly when dealing with tough problems.
I used to keep an org-mode file for every project I was working on, in which I'd brainstorm ongoing issues, but over time, these notes started to leak into my general "daily notes", so my current pattern is: both at work and at home, I keep a YYYY-MM.org (e.g. 2020-12.org) file where I make daily headings and write to myself.
The resulting notes are mostly write-only - they're verbose, and usually take too much effort to read through (unless I anticipate the need for future reference and write a summary on purpose). But all of the benefit comes from the very act of writing - it does wonders for structuring my thoughts, and I find it much better than talking to myself (which I used to do a lot when I was younger). My screen has more space than my working memory, so when doing written notes, my thinking process does much less backtracking.
I used to keep an org-mode file for every project I was working on, in which I'd brainstorm ongoing issues, but over time, these notes started to leak into my general "daily notes", so my current pattern is: both at work and at home, I keep a YYYY-MM.org (e.g. 2020-12.org) file where I make daily headings and write to myself.
The resulting notes are mostly write-only - they're verbose, and usually take too much effort to read through (unless I anticipate the need for future reference and write a summary on purpose). But all of the benefit comes from the very act of writing - it does wonders for structuring my thoughts, and I find it much better than talking to myself (which I used to do a lot when I was younger). My screen has more space than my working memory, so when doing written notes, my thinking process does much less backtracking.