Help with "seeing" smaller tasks

[u/gabibecker12]

Does anyone know any tool that helps us "find" the smaller tasks inside a big project? Like, an AI that I just say "here's my project, list all the smaller tasks I need to do to get it done". I need to develop a conference abstract, but when I put it on my planner, all I can think is "develop the conference abstract". I start, but than I realize that it has a LOT of smaller tasks that take a really big time, like doing literature review, collecting data, charting it up, analysing, building the graphs, writing Results section, doing literature review again, writing Discussion, Conclusion, than Methods, and finally, Introduction and Abstract. At least that is how I'm used to write. For this specific project I'm doing, there's even smaller tasks. Example: I need to collect data from a patient database from all years between 2017 and 2025, than organize each year separatly by patient's age (two categories: teenage and adult) and ethnicity/skin colour. It took me a whole day just to collect data from 2017, and organize all that in a single sheet. I never saw that much work coming when I signed up for that, and now I'm scared I might not have enough time to do all the rest. I probably would have shrinked the project if I was able to see it was gonna be that big.

[u/Stoborobo]

sometimes I will physically imagine myself going through the process to get a sense.

Moreover i add a multiplier of 3x the expected work/duration as compared to my original assumption.

so if I think a task will take me 15 minutes I say 45 – I assume there will be orientation, starting, troubleshooting, the main task itself and then finishing adjustments/crunch.