Unless you are the genius of this millennium, chances are high that your goal is something someone already did before. Nonetheless, we often delude ourselves by thinking that “no one did this thing before” and that “we are the ones who need to figure out how to get there.”
As you want to learn from the mistakes others make, you would be a fool not to imitate the best practices of successful people. It is a well-known maxim that we need to learn the rules such that we can intentionally and thoughtfully break them. But it is usually looked down on those who imitate others. In Hungary, where I grew up, we even have a phrase that approximately says that imitation is what only apes would do.
Despite the social stigma of imitation, it is one of the most efficient strategies, argues Annie Murphy Paul in The Extended Mind, drawing on research and case studies. This is why humanity came up with intellectual property rights: if I can copy for free what you worked out with heroic efforts, you would be pissed off, and rightfully so.
There is a gray zone, though, literally and figuratively: the gray matter of successful individuals is something we can almost freely copy: you can listen to a podcast or watch a TED talk for free. Or read the thoughts of timeless thinkers—particularly, you could (and probably should) read the Tao of Seneca.
But we can even go further. Though it is generally impossible to become the “apprentice” of a person we would like to learn from, we could imitate them. Benjamin Franklin did so to hone his writing skills, and so can we.
Actionable advice
When you transition from your studies to research, that brings about a paradigm shift: you are now supposed to write scientific papers, create presentations and posters. To figure things out quickly, look at exceptional pieces and copy them. It might feel like cheating, but it is not. You are using those as your guidelines to learn the tricks of the trade.