A while ago I wrote a lab decalog and I was not brave enough to post it. I was afraid of being judged as silly, or idealist, or naive, but here it is. I may not always accomplish to follow the following decalog, but trying is the first step.

1. Be passionate and curious, enjoy science. We dedicate a lot of time to science, regardless of the low job stability and relatively low salaries, so we should love what we do.
2. Be nice. You may think science is about ideas and data, but at the end its about the people who is behind. A good rule of thumb in case of conflict is to always assume good faith. The best way to solve problems is to talk about it. Even among labs (but specially within), we are not competitors, but team mates.
3. Support open science in the degree it is possible for you. Assure reproducibility of your results, deposit you data and code (use Git!), engage with the scientific community, participate of the peer review process and sign your reviews.
4. Think big. Which is the relevant question that science and/or society needs an answer. Then think how you can contribute. Resources in science are scarce, so we should focus on answering relevant questions (from small applied problems to big unifying theories, but relevant)
5. Talk a lot. Gain confidence to say what you think. Ask for help when needed, offer collaboration when you can. Know new people and see new points of view. Best ideas can come from anyone.
6. Go for quality, not quantity. Good experimental designs, solid datasets, well developed methods take time and I understand there is pressure for publishing, but I believe it pays off in the long run.
7. Never stop learning. And take your time to think about what you learned in each project and make it count.
8. Prioritize. Be engaged, but say “No” when you don’t have the time to dedicate. Prioritize your goals and do not compromise if you can’t. There is also lots of good things to do in life beside work, and those needs time too.
9. Read broadly and read a lot. Part of our job is reading papers. Having a holistic view require time to read. Learn how to read, while in some papers you would need to focus in the introduction, others you would like to dissect the methods, do not treat all papers equal.
10. Start side projects. Even better if you finish them. I explicitly encourage you to make use of the 20% rule. Use up to one day a week for other activities not directly related with your PhD/main project. You can involve me in it or not, you can learn something new, draw bees, have a blog, do an outreach project, develop and test a new method that may not work, collaborate in a crazy idea with someone else, read about a topic out of your area. In the long run, it pays off.
11. Above all, be flexible. As scientists we require the flexibility to have eleven items in a  decalog. To change our mind on how to best be productive. To adapt to the new challenges.