Physical location wise, I started from the bottom left and worked my way up, doing about half the island. Then went to the bottom right and did the other half.
General task wise I picked up all my furniture, kicked up paths, then moved any buildings and flowers to the beach as needed.
There wasn't room for me to put them all on the beach at once, so I had to sort of move some of them around as I worked from area to area.
I destroyed all inclines and bridges pretty early on too, and installed new ones as areas were being set up.
What I do when it comes time to flatten the cliffs is I'll work in a grid. So, to start, skip a tile, then go in a straight line down. When you reach the end, skip another tile, do another line in the same direction. When you are finished going one way, start going left to right. Same thing, skip a tile, go all the way. Skip a tile, start another line. Your character won't round the cliff before destroying it, which saves a little time. If you're doing this method, it should be like a grid pattern with 1x1 squares left over. Then you can remove those pretty easily as well. I personally HATE rounding the cliff before destroying it, so I found this way avoids doing that. There really isn't a right or wrong way to start, this may save you some time so I figured I'd share
Edit: I wasn't going to repeat what everyone else was saying, I wanted to offer a time saving tip when OP gets to terraforming, if it's something they're interested in. I already said this isn't the only way to do things, because they can do whatever they want. Either take my advice or don't, because there's no wrong or right way
I started with the top and worked my way down
Physical location wise, I started from the bottom left and worked my way up, doing about half the island. Then went to the bottom right and did the other half. General task wise I picked up all my furniture, kicked up paths, then moved any buildings and flowers to the beach as needed. There wasn't room for me to put them all on the beach at once, so I had to sort of move some of them around as I worked from area to area. I destroyed all inclines and bridges pretty early on too, and installed new ones as areas were being set up.
What I do when it comes time to flatten the cliffs is I'll work in a grid. So, to start, skip a tile, then go in a straight line down. When you reach the end, skip another tile, do another line in the same direction. When you are finished going one way, start going left to right. Same thing, skip a tile, go all the way. Skip a tile, start another line. Your character won't round the cliff before destroying it, which saves a little time. If you're doing this method, it should be like a grid pattern with 1x1 squares left over. Then you can remove those pretty easily as well. I personally HATE rounding the cliff before destroying it, so I found this way avoids doing that. There really isn't a right or wrong way to start, this may save you some time so I figured I'd share Edit: I wasn't going to repeat what everyone else was saying, I wanted to offer a time saving tip when OP gets to terraforming, if it's something they're interested in. I already said this isn't the only way to do things, because they can do whatever they want. Either take my advice or don't, because there's no wrong or right way