Richard Feynman's must-read book ["Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!"][1] is a mine of good research practices. 
My favorite Feynman's advice is on how teaching helps to do good research, see [these excerpts][2]. If nothing more, this is at least very motivating when you have TA/teaching duties that seem to "obstacle" your research. 


  [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surely_You%27re_Joking,_Mr._Feynman!
  [2]: http://www.pitt.edu/~druzdzel/feynman.html