An approach that precludes the act of writing by thinking up front (of structure, of content) is unproductive, leading to effects such as writer's block.
Actually it's more productive to Learn along the way and utilise the act of writing as a thinking process, to Allow ideas to emerge. Writing provides an opportunity for reflection and iteration, with the side-effect of producing an artefact.
However, bear in mind that The medium shapes the message. A thought held in the head is distinct from its representation, whether in spoken word, textual or visual. For instance, Tufte argues that the hierarchical presentation
style of PowerPoint reinforces corporate boundaries.
There is a difference between the content produced during Ideation, in which the primary purpose is as a structure for the thinking process, from the artefact's eventual desired audience. Essentially, Evergreen notes mature into a narrative structure through Successive refinement, becoming structured more for readability.
Optimistically creating note stubs will surface new concepts when writing new notes, because as Writing is thinking, creating a link to a new contextual note that doesn't exist yet represents a Save point for your mind.
Rather than performing thinking up front and only then capturing the output in written form, which leads to writer's block, note that Writing is thinking and the Curation of ideas broadens horizons and helps draw patterns.
These could come from a resource (How to take notes from literature) or through the refinement process itself, as Writing is thinking.
A space for writing, as Writing is thinking
Writing is thinking
In this regard, the act of Writing is thinking - creating an environment that will Allow ideas to emerge
The note-taking and refinement process is itself a thinking process (Writing is thinking).
I used to use public-facing blog articles as a way to do my thinking, because Writing is thinking, but this meant that I had to broadly have something workable in my head initially, because the intention was to publish and publicize.