The problem is not the project, the problem is often the scale and the time :) I work for 4-6 companies a month and if I got time, I go to meetups, give talks or help other developers. And if I'm lucky I get the time to read a book besides constantly reading up on programming topics, astrophysics, psychology, microbiology, history, ......

The only time I write my own projects are those 4 weeks a year were customers forget to call me. I spend my vacation on guitar workshops. So reading books and tutorials is nice applying them in your daily work makes more sense than just writing a side project, although they are fun.

So motivation is something nice but the problem is not the "go for it" the problem is the "stick to it" :) that's at least my experience.

Oddly, for a tutorial, the answer is "do it again".

This turns out to be high value for the time. You can write the code fairly quickly the second time through; error messages have more meaning and context; and you will pay attention to secondary characteristics including performance and testability. Also, you start to internalize the choices of syntax or library design the second time around.

Just because you got to the end of a tutorial, does not mean you are done.

One of the biggest issues I have with studying is that I sometimes use it as a way of procrastinating implementing any of what I'm studying, because in the moment I also have the sense of "Well, I understand this really well now, so I probably don't need to code it right away; I'll remember it when I get back to coding." and then I end up forgetting even some of the conceptual understanding I had when I was reading.

Main take away is like you said, practice everyday, but particularly while going through a tutorial, and especially while going through a book.

Concerning projects I'd say don't bother actually working on a project, but keep the project in the back of your mind while you're practicing implementing smaller concepts. Consider where that concept might fit into the bigger project if it could fit and whether it's the optimal solution or not, but only just consider it, as the main goal should be practicing the concept at hand.

forget project - project is too big scale and will make you think too much.

Can you find a situation where you can apply what you learned, i.e. refactor.

Refactoring something old into something new and does it work well in your eco-system means that the tutorial you just watched is useful. If you try to apply everything you have learned - you will be jack of all trade and master of none and being master of nothing only get your feet wet but you never become immerse into it to actually see how useful the book/tutorial is. Furthermore a tutorial is a stepping stone. You need some bigger scale application in real world to see if what you have learned is useful.