Start writing code as soon as possible. The earlier you start writing it, the earlier you'll actually understand what you're doing. Even typing in examples ver

Start writing code as soon as possible. The earlier you start writing it, the earlier you'll actually understand what you're doing. Even typing in examples verbatim from books will force you to start paying at least a little attention to what the code is doing. If that's too boring, try re-implementing examples without referring back to how they did it in the book.