Often when I can't think of a solution, and my attempts have failed, I inadvertently stop paying attention and just start messing around with words on the screen in the IDE. Pen and paper helps me focus on the problem.
Also, when thinking of a solution, and I'm starting to form an idea in my head, typing it into an IDE can make me lose focus unless the idea is already very clearly outlined in my head. It's happened to me before that while I have a partially formed idea in my mind, I type it into the IDE, and a large window of completion suggestions, or a red underline from a typo, distract me and I forget the idea I was thinking about, and I have to start over.
I was diagnosed with ADD; it could be I'm just more easily distracted than other programmers.
And yeah, I draw tables, write pseudo code, draw outlines of the program, sketch data structures, etc.
Also, when thinking of a solution, and I'm starting to form an idea in my head, typing it into an IDE can make me lose focus unless the idea is already very clearly outlined in my head. It's happened to me before that while I have a partially formed idea in my mind, I type it into the IDE, and a large window of completion suggestions, or a red underline from a typo, distract me and I forget the idea I was thinking about, and I have to start over.
I was diagnosed with ADD; it could be I'm just more easily distracted than other programmers.
And yeah, I draw tables, write pseudo code, draw outlines of the program, sketch data structures, etc.