One thing that is still open after Dr.RenalNash’s answer:

What would you measure differently if you were starting again?

TirzTom said:

One practical note: write down what you did and when, before you need it.

Pushing back on TirzTom here. This treats a plausible mechanism as a demonstrated one. Plausible is where you start looking, not where you stop.

TirzTom said:

One practical note: write down what you did and when, before you need it.

That is right, and it stops being right at the edges. The general case is well behaved; the interesting cases in this thread are all at the boundary where the general case breaks.

Old thread, but it comes up first when you search for this, so it is worth updating. One habit that pays for itself: post the method alongside the number. A figure without its method cannot be checked, and an unchecked figure is how this community accumulates folklore.

From the other side of the consultation, briefly. Worth answering the question that was asked rather than the one behind it. The narrow version usually has an answer; the broad version usually does not, and answering the broad one is how a thread stops being useful.