Research can be hard. You don’t have to navigate it alone.

Research can be hard. You don’t have to navigate it alone.

Habits, clarity, and emotional intelligence for graduate students, early career researchers, and the mentors guiding them.

Curiosity moves research forward. Healthy environments allow it to thrive.

Line drawing of a young plant with three leaves emerging from soil on black background.

Curiosity moves research forward. Healthy environments allow it to thrive.

FEATURED SERIES

Habits, Not Hacks

We go beyond tips and tricks to explore the full arc of grad school life lab failures, loaded advisor meetings, productivity spirals, imposter syndrome, and the small wins that keep you going. Each episode digs into what's actually happening and offers practical, evidence-grounded ways to handle it.

Habits Not Hacks visual
The habits you build in grad school don't stay in the lab. They follow you into your career, how you manage ambiguity, give and receive feedback, lead teams, and keep going when the results aren't what you expected.
FOR
🔬 Trainees 👩‍🏫 Supervisors 🚀 Early-career researchers
FEATURED TOOLS

Habit Toolkit

Ready-to-use meeting templates, wellness scripts, and habit trackers built around the real rhythms of grad school. No reinventing the wheel. Just tools that help you show up prepared, stay grounded, and make progress without burning out.

Habit Toolkit visual
The tools you reach for in grad school become second nature by the time you're leading a lab, managing a team, or navigating a new role. Start with the templates. Build the habit. Carry it forward.
Habits Not Hacks SERIES

Better science begins with better habits.

Academia trains researchers in methods, but the habits that sustain good work are often left unspoken.

GradLab Compass offers practical, reflective guidance for navigating graduate school, lab culture, mentorship, communication, and sustainable productivity.

  • Calm, grounded guidance
  • Tools for navigating research culture
  • Habits that outlast grad school
  • Support for both trainees and supervisors
Explore Habits Not Hacks

Better science begins with better habits.

Academia isn’t broken because people lack training — it’s that essential habits, support, and communication skills are overshadowed by the relentless focus on producing data.

GradLab Compass gives you practical, emotionally intelligent tools to make research healthier, clearer, and more sustainable.

Calm, grounded guidance

Tools for navigating messy/lab culture

Habits that outlast grad school

Support for both trainees and supervisors

How to Manage Your Energy in Graduate School

Mentoring Graduate Students: Principles for PIs

How to Get the Most Out of Lab Meetings

Reframing Self-Care in a System That Never Slows Down

GradLab Compass is created by someone who believes that brilliant ideas thrive when people do. This space offers practical, honest, emotionally intelligent habits to help you build a healthier research life — one conversation at a time.

GradLab Compass is created by someone who believes that brilliant ideas thrive when people do. This space offers practical, honest, emotionally intelligent habits to help you build a healthier research life — one conversation at a time.

Start Your Compass Journey