1.) After getting through the preliminaries, its good to find reading material suitable to your reading level. There are things called Graded Readers that have stories, articles, etc that are directed towards a more mature audience, but are written in easier vocabulary so it can be understood by beginning readers. Some good authors for graded readers are Erika Meyer and Peter Hagboldt. They wrote readers in the 1920s and 30s, but the stories are still good for reading, even though you might have to read in Gothic script (which is kind of fun too 
) The key is finding reading material at your level, which is a matter of trial and error. If you find yourself looking up half the words on a page, the material is too difficult and you need to find something easier to read. Looking up 5% or so of the words per page is about right, so you can focus more on letting your mind get into the story than on acquiring vocabulary. The whole process of learning to read in German is a bear at first, but it gets easier as time goes by. You just have to keep at it, and keep it fun. I found reading Donald Duck comics helpful in the beginning, since the language is easy and the pictures help to understand the context of what is going on. (I still read comics, since I don't have to look up very many words to read them, which is fun).
2.) Set aside a certain amount of time each day to review some grammar. There are some great websites out there that are free, and are a wealth of information on grammar, tips and tricks, etc. One of them is https://germanwithlaura.com/learn-the-r ... n-grammar/ and I've seen others. Read a little each day, and then see how it applies to your reading, listening and (if you are lucky enough to have a German friend) speaking skills. Learning German is a lot like putting a puzzle together, except this puzzle is the size of a lake! Don't expect to put it all together in one session... if you push yourself hard like that you will most certainly burn yourself out so keep it fun and light so you keep coming back the next day 
3.) When you read something you don't understand, there is a good chance it is an idiom. Use a website like https://www.dict.cc/ to confirm your suspicions, and then write the idiom down somewhere for review later. By the way, dict.cc is a great dictionary too, and to be honest, if it werent for this online dictionary, i don't believe I could learn German! Looking words up in a book would be painful, considering how many times I look things up. Dict.cc has word definitions and idioms associated with the words you look up. It is a goldmine (to me at least)!
4.) If you start to think you are getting good at German, test out your skills by watching a TV show. On the Roku you can get the Tageschau24 channel, and there are other channels you can get on a Firestick. If you want to humble yourself, try to keep up with the native speakers and that will quickly remind you that you have a long way to go. But what is fascinating is that after you have studied for a while, what the people are saying on TV will actually start to make sense! I use TV shows as a guage for how far I've come along in my studies. The key to watching TV shows is to relax your mind and let the words impress themselves into you as you listen. Don't try to translate what they are saying, just listen and let them speak to you.
Overall, learning German is like trying to look at something under a microscope. Reading gives you something to look at. grammar helps you bring things into focus. Keeping it fun is the most important thing!
If you have any suggestions or comments, please leave them below. The things people have shared from various sources have helped me immensely, and I welcome anything you have experienced that has helped you learn German
Learning: 
, A1: 
- Beginner 
(Busuu: B1) - 
, 
/ trying to understand at least a bit 