Occasionally the vision of the whole will emerge very rapidly. If it does not, remember to work in explore mode for awhile and take a look around the neighborhood. Make maps to hunt for patterns and themes . Make matrices, do Mind Maps or mandalas. Whatever you do, don't rely on making lists alone.
Lists are one step on the road to something that's more dimensional.
Show connections and relationships instead. Try to draw or construct 3D models of different components or slices of the information. Add another dimension and show how these 3D models behave over time. To get real world about it, show how multiple incarnations of the 3D models might behave over time. Connect new stuff with old stuff and get lost .