You should not expect to try out all or even most of the suggestions in the following pages in one go on your first essay. Probably, you will already be doing effectively some of the things that are discussed, but not others. Be realistic about how many new things you can try out at one time -- you are going to be doing a lot more than a single essay during your degree course!
Start by overviewing the sections, and think about which areas are familiar and which are newest or may require most work for you. Feedback from your tutor will help you target parts of the essay production process to which you need to attend. Then you can build a list of priorities of things to try out, or to attempt to improve, on a particular essay or sequence of essays. It is often a good idea to write these things down as the basis of a work plan for yourself. Explicitly stating what you are trying to do, e.g. to concentrate on getting references in the appropriate format this time, helps you to become more aware of your behaviour and to assess the extent to which you are moving towards the goals that you have set for yourself.
Come back to this guide at regular intervals, until you have a clear idea of which suggestions work for you and which don't. Discuss alternatives with your tutors and other students (and share with them things that work for you). The most important thing is to become clear in your own mind that producing effective academic essays is mostly a question of systematic work and skill acquisition. Nobody is `just good at doing essays'. They may, however, have skills that make it seem as if this kind of work comes easily to them. With time and effort you too can develop those skills.