Find out when the final paper is due, and mark it in your calendar immediately. This is the date you will use to make a time-line of your progress. Keeping this date in mind will prevent you from losing sight of the finished product and postponing all your work until the last minute.
Start setting up your research paper ideas as soon as you are assigned the project. You never know if it will be easy or difficult to find sources, so it is best to find them as soon as possible. Try to do this with two months remaining, so that you have ample time to gather and thoroughly research your information.
Determine how many sources you will use and how long it will take you to read each one; mark dates on your calendar for when to complete these. Be realistic with your goals--do not give yourself one day to read a 500-page book. Ensure that you have at least a month after reading all of your resources to actually write the paper.
Mark dates in the month leading up to your paper due date to complete an outline of the paper, a rough draft that you will edit yourself and an additional draft that you will give someone else to proofread and revise. You should try to finish the outline in the beginning of the month, the first rough draft two weeks before the final date and the peer-edited rough draft one week prior.