When you begin studying, there are useful skills you can start developing even before you are given an assignment.
Setting goals and organising your time are important not only for individual tasks, but in your study activities and in life generally.
Recording what you learn at the same time as you are learning it, will help you recall this information at a later date. Making notes, underlining handouts and creating mind maps are valuable skills to develop. They also help to reinforce your understanding when you first encounter the information, and as you do revision and complete assignments.
An essential practice to develop is to record your sources as you use them. It is very time consuming to find information for your reference list when you are completing your assignment. Write down all the bibliographic information about your source while you are reading / viewing / listening to it.