There is no set way to do this. I've seen some people say they move all buildings to the beach to get them out of the way, chop down all trees, and make the entire land flat. They do this to build a blank canvas. I personally tried to, both mentally and on paper, to do this (did not in-game because of the expense/time of moving buildings multiple times when I don't TT). It didn't work. That was too big of picture for me.
Instead I focus on areas, or "scenes" I am trying to do. Where do I want that area on my map? What buildings and terraforming do I need to do that? What furniture and plant life do I need? I pick one theme/area and go with that, then move on to the next. I sometimes work on multiples at once, depending on terraforming/building movement/furniture status. For me, it's easier to picture smaller areas than the bigger area. So far, it's all working quite well for me.
Thanks for the advice everyone!!! Sometimes I need to remind myself that animal crossing is a long term game and I don't need to rush myself to terraform and have the perfect island straight away xD >_<
Remember too - there's those of us who don't TT. I don't know whether you do or not, but I wanted to point out the non-TT because all of us non-TTers are generally behind as far as terraforming goes. It takes us longer to move buildings, unlock cool furniture and DIYs to decorate, etc. So you don't need to feel "behind", as there's people who are probably being slower at everything than you.
For example, I just finished my downtown area + residential area + park yesterday (excluding the growth of the baby trees I planted yesterday). It took me about 2 1/2 weeks of real time between only being allowed to move 1 building per day and slowly ordering things from my catalog, plus deciding on everything. That is only ONE part of my island. I still have TONS to do.
This is just all to say - don't let things you see on social media make you feel rushed.
