One solution I’ve been exploring is forcing myself to write down my thought process
Keeping notes about everything I tried works well for me—at least for a problem I will probably solve in a day or 3. For longer-range problems and concerns, I’m less enthusiastic about making notes because it tends to be difficult to figure out how to store or catalog the notes so that I have a decent chance of finding the notes again.
But my brain does not try to explore every possibility in the solution space, even when I’m not taking notes, so maybe my experience is not relevant to you.
Keeping notes about everything I tried works well for me—at least for a problem I will probably solve in a day or 3. For longer-range problems and concerns, I’m less enthusiastic about making notes because it tends to be difficult to figure out how to store or catalog the notes so that I have a decent chance of finding the notes again.
But my brain does not try to explore every possibility in the solution space, even when I’m not taking notes, so maybe my experience is not relevant to you.