Making Realistic Goals

I'm very good at planning. Specifically, somewhere between 3 and 5 am when I'm staring at the ceiling, not sleeping, I can plan out a really specific daily structure that will change my life for the better. I make lists of things to buy, places to go, times to get up, times to go to bed, I'm going to lock the internet for hours at a time, I'm going to make a points system to get me to do all my tasks. I'm going to make lunch, take breakfast on the bus, go swimming every morning.

What I'm not good at is making these grand plans actually realistic. Making the leap from "I literally can't sleep and feel awful right now" to actually doing stuff for more than a week or so when I'm on holiday. I did lose about 15lbs putting calorie counting & exercise into practice over the summer (so I know I can do it & it's not that hard), but I was doing literally nothing else. It's the mix of going to school, preparing food ahead of time, packing clothes for the gym, washing my gym clothes, finishing reading & assignments, getting enough sleep & getting up early - that tends to trip me up.

I really want to actually work out & prepare food in advance this semester. Last semester was a complete wreck. Partially because I wrecked my knee, but things just snowballed out of control & I never caught up. Exercise & eating right were the first things to go, because they were recent habits that I was still figuring out.

I know everyone is different, and some people just start full-speed-ahead with new habits. But I'm slow. I've got the dunce cap on with health. I was wondering if you've had success with an approach or strategy to build better health/fitness/nutrition/etc habits, from waking up early to working out more to making food in advance, etc. What helped you get there? Did you have progress goals? How did you keep everything from balling up into a huge conglomerate of "aaaaaahhhh I should do things but howwww"? lol Any & all advice from any situation would be helpful