That is a great question, one we all seek the answer to when starting out.
Unfortunately, the answers are far greater than a sentence or even a paragraph or two, to really answer this age old question.
Lucky for you, I have recently written an article to help point you, and other fellow beginners, in the right direction..
In this article, Top 7 Tips when Starting to Learn Blender, I outline the answers to the most asked questions relating to starting out with Blender, including course order recommendations and playlists, finding the time to practice, experimentation, touching on the preferences to speed up your workflow to your needs and quite a bit more. There are also links to further reading to dive deeper into the areas in this article.
To make the most out of your time is the most tricky of trickiest, procrastination is running rampant in today's world. It's all about discipline and grit, which nowadays are basically super powers. The struggle is real, but in the end it'll be up to you to control screen time, video game time, replace hours spent on entertainment and Netflix with learning and watching courses and tutorials. Your friends will tell you "what? Dude you haven't seen the new season of this and that?" But it'll be a fair price to pay, you will have spent that time acquiring a new skill.
Blender learning curve is steep, it's not easy at firs, but stick to it, it'll pass eventually and then it'll become extremely fun. Plus there's a great community here willing to help out.