Walking is good for working out the structure of some writing

During the pandemic, I've been going for a lot of afternoon walks, and I've found that walking is a great way to work out what I want to say with some writing.

It helps me work out the overall structure of the writing. I can figure out that structure from scratch, and something about walking frees up my mind for that task. And I can't use some external representation of the details as a crutch. I'm forced more to justify the structure to myself.

I find it helps to speak out loud while I'm walking. I wear a pair of headphones with a microphone and record what I'm saying using my phone's voice recorder. Having it actually recorded seems to impose a bit of discipline, that aids in figuring things out.

When I'm sitting at the computer, I tend to be much more constrained by the existing content I've written. Even though I often create new documents as I'm drafting the material. It's just more difficult to figure out what the overall structure of the material should be.

In the past I've tried using whiteboards and paper-based notes to work out the structure of the material, and neither of those were as good as walking.

What working at the computer is better for is getting into the nitty-gritty of my argument and how I'm expressing that.