How do I start a project?

In response to the question posed, believe it or not, with my stenopad of graph paper, ruler and a pencil...Maybe it's the engineering training, but I take a look at the materials in a kit, get a sense of the colors, patterns and the size of the embellishments, prints, designs, etc., and I sketch out various one or two page layouts that might work with that paper line. While doing so, I mentally review the photos I've recently taken (or have earmarked to scrap) and start to "place" them in the design (at least the one that is forming in my head by this point.) Then off to my scraproom I go!
Sometimes the paper itself just "speaks" to me. Then I lay it all out on the kitchen table (or on the crop tables at Scrapbooks-Plus), and walk around it a couple of times to get a feel for the colors, patterns and elements that will fit well with my photos, before I take on the graph paper. (Of course while I'm walking I have that ruler in my hand!) For example, I took one look at the "Zachary" Little Yellow Bicycle paper in my kit from last month and KNEW, with its orange and blue-grunge look that it was perfect for my boys fall season of little league baseball. (the grungier the better!) And knowing I had tons of photographs I wanted to use, I ran to my graph paper and sketched a multi-photo design altered from a layout I had done last year. So it's both sitting and standing (walking) for me.....but I "think" on graph paper before I cut the first sheet of scrap paper.
Sharon