This applies to emails as well. The other day my team ran into an issue late at night, with an impending launch the next day. One teammate handed the issue off to me at 2 AM her time and I needed to figure out how the team should proceed the next morning (before I would be awake).
I just started writing an email with our goals, what the obvious options were, how the options mapped onto the goals, what other contingencies might arise, etc. Through the course of writing the email it became pretty clear what the best option was, and what the fallback option would be in the likeliest contingencies.
As I was describing the situation to my kid the next day, I told her that sometimes when we write things down in emails or letters, it's just as much for distilling our own thoughts as it is about communicating with others.
I just started writing an email with our goals, what the obvious options were, how the options mapped onto the goals, what other contingencies might arise, etc. Through the course of writing the email it became pretty clear what the best option was, and what the fallback option would be in the likeliest contingencies.
As I was describing the situation to my kid the next day, I told her that sometimes when we write things down in emails or letters, it's just as much for distilling our own thoughts as it is about communicating with others.