Many people enter scientific careers by way of graduate school. Some aspects of success in graduate school depend on informal sharing of knowledge that occurs among students. To formalize some of the student-to-student teaching, I have articulated eight practical ideas based on my experience about how students can perform well and develop habits in graduate school that will lead to being able to do good science in the future. These ideas are arranged under the major principles of motivation, discipline, and knowledge. Students should: work with others, work on something they believe in, meet their advisors regularly, plan experiments carefully, be meticulous in their work, not procrastinate, understand statistics applicable to their work, and have a good grounding in the basic sciences. Examples of well-known scientists who followed these practices are included.