"...I physically write it onto a notepad..."
This is one aspect of a well-known phenomenon in Psychology. The more physical modalities on which you can exercise ideas, the more firmly you will grasp, reinforce, and retain them. Reading, hearing, reciting, viewing images and moving streams, writing, typing, teaching (requires reformulation for others) - all improve recall and understanding. Repeating any/all of these things, redoing them in different locales - contributes new, valuable reinforcements for the ideas.
Congrats on discovering and sharing the writing mode of reinforcement.