I tend to do it whenever I'm working on something I find tricky.
For me it's much easier to focus if I take my printouts and get away from the computer and edit and write code by hand, then go back and type in the changes.
I started doing this when I thought back to times I programmed back in high school and college and remembered that I'd always had the most success with programs working correctly when I'd written them out by hand before typing them in. I think it forces me to really think about what's happening, rather than just trying stuff until things "mostly" work.
I find that when I'm sitting at the computer, I have a much more iterative style, where I try something, see how that went, and make changes. When I'm working out something away from the computer, I have to have a coherent mental model of what I'm trying to accomplish.
So at the computer is good for experimenting and exploration, away from the computer is good for coherent designs.
I think there's something analogous with languages, I find dynamic languages much easier to deal with when I'm sitting at the computer, but if I'm working away from the computer on paper, then I prefer languages like SML or OCaml (or maybe even Go?) where I can look at the code and work through in my head exactly what is going on.
For me it's much easier to focus if I take my printouts and get away from the computer and edit and write code by hand, then go back and type in the changes.
I started doing this when I thought back to times I programmed back in high school and college and remembered that I'd always had the most success with programs working correctly when I'd written them out by hand before typing them in. I think it forces me to really think about what's happening, rather than just trying stuff until things "mostly" work.
I find that when I'm sitting at the computer, I have a much more iterative style, where I try something, see how that went, and make changes. When I'm working out something away from the computer, I have to have a coherent mental model of what I'm trying to accomplish.
So at the computer is good for experimenting and exploration, away from the computer is good for coherent designs.
I think there's something analogous with languages, I find dynamic languages much easier to deal with when I'm sitting at the computer, but if I'm working away from the computer on paper, then I prefer languages like SML or OCaml (or maybe even Go?) where I can look at the code and work through in my head exactly what is going on.