For USACO, try writing

I’m really curious how

• “Writing is thinking” as they say, but I would’ve never thought it applied to olympiad problems. Works unreasonably well.
  • Organizes ideas.
  • Keeps focus and explore mode; prevents getting stuck repeating the same thoughts.
  • Frees up mental RAM (diagrams on paper help sometimes too)
  • Generates new ideas! Often, I’d list the peculiar problem constraints out in words (e.g. need to try all permutations, but too slow..), and that alone reminds me of a technique (..dp on subsets!).
  • And lets you see when reviewing where each thought led and where your blind spots were.