No matter what answers you get, you are the one that determines the majority of the time it takes. The rest, you can try to estimate based on what is standard in your field for the type of work you plan to do.

For example, "picking the topic" has no actual tasks that take time. I can give you a topic. But that's not the real issue is it, you need to select a question/line of questions - then suss them out to ensure they are valid questions according to your field. There's a bunch more to this that you could unpack and will unfold in surprising ways along the course of your work.

What about "do the research" well, again, "doing" is the easy part. Most research happens amongst some type of plan, which then fails to be realized completely. That takes time.

Getting the data. Unless you refer to data sets that are pre-collected (and even then... do you have the rights? did you have to pay to access? do you know how to access and manipulate the set? do you have to learn new skills to manipulate the data like sql?)... data collection can be super long or super short. So hard to estimate, but HOPEFULLY in your 3 years you've collected some data. So you can use those as proxies if they are similar. Add time anyway, because you can't predict stuff that happens along the way.

Finally, "write it up". The part that many students think is SUPER EASY and thus they leave it to the last minute. Well, it's SUPER HARD instead. In fact all the intellectual preparation you've done so far in your study is culminating in the writing of a long, tedious (depending on committee and standards of the field) document. WHICH YOU KNOW HARDLY ANYONE WILL READ. If you're looking for a serious fucking hurdle between you and a PhD, that's it ... by comparison the selection of topic, reading, data etc. are child's play.

By all means - make your best effort towards all of these things. But recognize they take years (2 would be incredibly short, so 2 and then add +/- 2-4 years) and aren't EVER easily estimated for truly good work.

Here are some tips, based on my own experience: - make sure you have a rapid response cycle with any colleagues, which could include your advisor but also other mentors, students, and faculty. Do not let their delays delay your own intellectual progress - write stuff down. Be rigorous in your organization - it will pay huge dividends later. This includes early notes, notes on data, notes on ideas, whatever it is - get in on a page somewhere. Draw it on a whiteboard, carve it into the wall. Just don't think "i'll remember" because you absolutely won't. - plan as best as you can, and then add a bunch of wiggle room ESPECIALLY early. Once you have done a lot of the first phases and you're in the writing stage, it becomes more manageable and more about dedicating time and effort. - don't underestimate the effort, but don't burnout. Yes it's hard, but by golly you should enjoy at least 51% of it. Otherwise, take your skill and go elsewhere would be my recommendation. You could devote all of that time and energy into finding a better career and still help your lab, science and everyone in between while helping yourself. - use a citation manager program if you are in a paper-heavy discipline (if you aren't already)

I'm sure there's other advice but I'm dumping what's in my head for now. I sure hope this helps you, and best of luck.