cite or die

The first day of class,I was told "if you work 60 hours a week and go to school full time,is this the class for you? Probably not." I never pay attention to these warnings, but this research paper showed me that maybe I should.
This paper was a complete nightmare simply because it was a lit review, which in my opinion, is just a huge summary of other peoples findings. I was brought up doing research papers, so this was an extremely hard adjustment for me. Its not about the "why"as much as it is about the "she said then this person said."
I am in no position to give advise which would apply to EVERYONE, but i can testify what will work for the student who tends to only work when they have one day,or even worse,the morning of, to finish a huge paper.
First, just think of a topic which has a lot of research on it,but isn't as generic as legalizing drugs. Second, second gather your research about two weeks in advance. Not necessarily putting everything in our own words,just,literally copy/paste everything in an appropriate category (i.e. theories go in the theory section,stats go in the findings section,etc.). Read over all the notes so that you may internalize the information,and be able to reiterate what you have found,but in your own,more comprehensive wording. Third,is the actual writing, which has been made semi easy,because all of the information is at hand.
MY paper was on the effects which the juvenile justice system has on juvenile recidivism. There are a few databases to choose from,but the most useful of them all, in regards to this topic, was proquest. To answer this question,i found the key words "juvenile,recidivism,racism" and "juvenile,probation, effects" to conjure up the most useful results.
I personally found this paper extremely hard to accomplish because I am that 60 hour,full time student/ father, with very little time. In my case time management was extremely important. If i were to go about it differently, i would have started the very first day of class.This would have relieved alot of pressure.
Overall, the project taught me a valuable lesson,in concerns to thejuvenile justice system,and showed me a side of it I've never seen.