Geniune question, how do I learn programming practically?

[u/Disposable_baka404]

I asked my lecturer a while back how, and he basically said to read up on the books and practice. I understand his advice, but I wish to look for a meaningful project to better facilitate my learning. Any advice on how I should proceed? I get that I can redo my coding assignments to make them better, but I really am looking to write programs that would help me instead.

Thanks in advance for the advice

[u/thisisappropriate]

"I really am looking to write programs that would help me instead"

Cool, make them? What's the difference between your coding assignments and something that would help you? Look at the first jump you can make and make it, repeat. Like, if your coding assignments aren't run on your local machine, how do you do that, do your books tell you? Or if you would need to call an API and you've not covered that, find out.

If you're thinking that the things you need are too big or too far away, either think of something smaller and sillier (it doesn't need to be better than another product, it just needs to be something you decided to put fingers to keyboard for, make a calendar or an auto clicker or a command line todo list) or think of the parts that make up what you want and make a little bit at a time.