Find a professional teacher and take some lessons. This will save much of your time. In China, we have a saying which means the master leads you into the door, and then it all depands on yourself.

memorize 407 syllables of pinyin

make a Chinese friend ,he or she wiil help you .

listen like a baby，find your language mother

Hi, contact me and I can teach you some very basic Mandarin if you need that. First of all, just be open to all native speakers to start your exploration into Chinese learning.