Use a rubberducking text file. Every time you think, write down a line or two delineating your current reasoning and your debugging info. When you make changes

Use a rubberducking text file. Every time you think, write down a line or two delineating your current reasoning and your debugging info. When you make changes, highlight them to mark them as pending ("need to update IDT"). You can also categorize, tag lines/pieces, and so on. When you're stuck just backtrack this file, whether it is a hour or two days from now, and you'll avoid all of this.