I like to first take a long hard look at the turn. Watch battles, check for found sites, events, scouts/scry reports and then I exit the game.
I usually wait at least a few hours but sometimes a day or two contemplating my options, threats, resources etc. If I'm at war I also think about my enemy, what did he do? what does he like to do? how does he equip his SCs etc?
Then I form a rough plan for the turn and near future and I write that down. I double check against the information and notes I wrote down from previous turns and update that. I have game plan document for each game I play or ever played (I kept them all, together with turn backups
). So I can go back and consult how I solved similar problems, like that player likes RoS ambushes and elemental protected SCs (and usually neglects MR). What did I do back then?- Maybe it can work now?
I also write everything worth note I see about everyone in the game. Army composition, important provinces, blood provinces, SC type, equipment stats and weak points etc.
Then I do diplo - which is fun
Last, I go through the mundane & somewhat boring phase of clicking all the consequent orders.
Oh and at rare turns of epic memorable battles I take screenshots displaying the battle from start to end. I keep all those screenshot for my screen saver.