As they say, a good beginning is half the battle won. You need to be organized, and more importantly, focused during PhD. No matter how you divide time between work and personal life, you should not lose focus of your PhD target.
Both short-term and long-term. Short-term goals are your daily experiments, and long-term target is the far-sightedness of the experiments required to be done for the completion of your project.
A good working style is a great start for PhD and a good habit during the course. Good working practices include taking down notes while you work, and while you listen to presentations.
You should aim to imbibe something from every experience. For instance, if you appreciate a speaker in a seminar, ask yourself why you liked the talk.
Why was the presentation so engaging?
Likewise, if you failed to concentrate in a talk, ask what caused you to lose attention.
Was it because of how the talk was delivered?
Or was it because you need to improve on your listening skills?
Asking yourself these questions will let you understand the do’s and don’ts of presentation-making. It benefits if you attend not just seminars from your genre of work, but also any scientific talk.
If you can listen attentively and understand talks on unknown topics, then it is a fantastic skill that builds your sense of logic and reasoning.