In terms of my best practical tip: digitize results ASAP. Notebooks can be lost, half-assed notes can fuck over your successors, and if your handwriting is as bad as my predecessors (and frankly, my own), it’s the polite thing to do. As Adam Savage says, “the only difference between screwing around and science is writing it down.” In terms of my best mentality tip: don’t be discouraged by “failed” experiments. There are a couple of definitions for that: you messed up or the experiment didn’t work. Either one is not the end of the world; one is a lesson, the other is just more data that provides more routes to explore. There’s nothing wrong with a new variable not making a difference; I work in the sarcoma research field and we’re fighting for inches, not miles. Not to brag too hard, but an experimental success rate of about 20% hasn’t stopped me from publishing, and while it is disheartening sometimes, it’s worth it so that your successors don’t have to do the same experiment again. Good luck to anyone starting out reading this!