work like a dog from the start, and don't get at all down about most of everything not working

also, understand what you need for a paper and work towards that.i ended up with a few results which were fine results, but they weren't enough to make a paper from so in the end they were fuck all good to me

maybe try writing the lit review early on, you never realise how much you have overratted your expertise in the field until you start writing that. forces you to really know your stuff.