How do you approach mega projects?

Hello everyone!

I got the idea of finally starting a mega project.

The idea behind it comes from my love for secrets, scavenger hunts and adventure.

I have recently been invited to a server and I would love to spend my time on something that I haven't done yet in minecraft. While I have never defeated the Ender Dragon or been to the nether a whole lot, I am always building my starter house and then one smaller project. Maybe a wizard tower or a castle, etc. but I have never considered going for a mega project.

For this server I would like to travel far away from everyone else for a while and then start by building a smaller base somewhere to start and amass the building blocks but how do I approach something of this size? Where do you draw your inspirations from? I feel like everytime I look at these blocks in my hand my imagination stops working and I can't picture what I actually want to build.

I would like to make this build something many people could make use of. Kinda like a tourist attraction coupled with a functional building.

I've seen videos from a German youtuber who built this massive redstone factory that can restock itself from adjacent farms and has a working computer system etc. While I think this would be cool, I also fear it would be incredibly hard to build in a survival world.

What are your tips and tricks for undertaking such a venture?