[raytracer]

> it creates some other kind of mental load:

I find it's actually the opposite. Writing things down means I can forget about whatever it is and focus on the task at hand.

> it's not as important as it seemed yesterday

This is a good thing in some situations. I generally write down ideas whenever they appear. Coming back to the ideas in days/weeks/months helps to provide some perspective. If it still looks like a good idea, it can be acted on.

Bad ideas can be discard or ignored.

It's a better outcome than spending a day getting side tracked only to wake up the next day to realise the idea was rubbish.

It doesn't hurt to have a backlog of things for those slow, inspiration free days either.