At any given point in a flight, he prepares a mental list of his options, should an emergency situation develop.
Digressing from the topic, but you threw it out there:
I used to drop that in the lap of a 3000hr SFO soon to start the command upgrade process in todays fats track LoCo's during a TFS out over the sea with nothing to see but sea. The scenario was not necessarily an emergency, usually more subtle (as DXB was). Silence and somewhat surprise at the question. I encouraged some thinking by saying, "You expect to be sitting here in a few months. So what are you going to do to lead your a/c, crew & pax out of this situation?" The difference in interest was astonishing. Some were very smart and enthusiastic because it was rare to be challenged: others were WTF, I haven't started the course yet and I can fly the a/c as well as you.
I'll stick with the Sully philosophy. We ain't supposed to be up there. Man & machine versus gravity & mother nature. Always have an escape route. Identify one, every 30 mins, then read the paper.