I don't have a strong opinion on learning the syntax and choice of environment, but writing something like a sodoku or crossword solver(helper) would be pretty neat.

I'm also day dreaming about programs that define knitting and yarning patterns as a follow up. The ageism.

Break it up by time. As an example split... say you wanted to build a dashboard in a week. Use three days for research and four days for executing. Look up immediate blocking problems during your execution phase, but stay at a granular level.

Doing good research is a great quality though!