One of my main downfalls in previous projects is that I didn't plan them well enough. Because of this, I was determined to ensure I didn't make the same mistakes again on my Senior Thesis project. I initially made my Gantt Chart too detailed, which made it difficult to use and read, but later scaled it back to a week-by-week plan which has worked very well.
I had initially planned to spend 60 hours total on my project, which later grew to around 100, and although I've lost track, by now I think it'd be closer to 250.
I coloured in each box if I completed that amount of work on that topic in the week I set it for, and then left a note on that box if I went over the target.