Thanks for the response Daverave.

I did start working on an entry for the egg challenge, but didn't really plan my image or manage my time correctly. Things took longer then I thought, and I ended up spending more time playing around with mentalray and lighting than anything else so I never finished creating the scene, texturing everything else.

Thats was part of the reason why I was asking for tips on planning. When going into a project should you create lists of all the different items/props that are needed. Then how should you prioritise your work, whats the correct order in doing things. For example model and texture the scene then model and texture all the props then combine both then lighting and finally render.

EDIT: This is a render of the progress I made in the egg challenge: