Talk to your supervisor as often as possible. Be proactive; don’t wait for anyone to tell you what needs to be done. Don’t assume anyone will inform you of the correct procedures even for the simplest administrative things. Work harder than they tell you to or expect you to. Find or create your own motivation, because there are going to be times when you’ll be very discouraged, but it’s worth hanging in there. Get to know your committee members, because they can be good allies, and ideally are there to help you. The difference between a PhD and a Master’s is that you’re supposed to be able to see the “big picture”, so try to keep that in mind when you’re writing (proposals, papers, scholarship applications, etc.) – that is what people are looking for when they assess your work: whether you can relate what you are doing within your project to what has been done, what is being done, and what should be done next by others.