If you’re working towards a big assignment, start by thrashing out the big building blocks of the task.

That could be by content area: what different sub-topics do you need to work on as part of your overall assignment?

And / or planning by phase of work: new reading first, then planning, then writing-up, then proofreading.

Once you’ve made your “map”, do a quick time budget for it. E.g. if there are 11 chapters to study, and you’ve got 25 days before the test, that’s 1 chapter every 2 days, with a couple of days in hand.

Is that feel realistic? If not, how can you prioritise or scale back your ambitions to make the task fit into the time available?

Don’t make your study plan too detailed. You’re looking for a birds-eye view of the road ahead, not a minute-by-minute, blow-by-blow finicky plan that no-one could possibly stick to!