Research is hard. Here are some tips I’ve picked up over the years: 1. Try to present your work to as many people who will listen. It forces you to really understand the content yourself, and serves as a reality check 2. Make dedicated time for research. As a grad student, it is easy to put research to the side, but to solve any non-trivial problem requires constant, structured attention. 3. Have confidence: you only need to make a small contribution!