How do I get better at programming?

I feel like most of the time I've spent programming has been copying tutorials and on top of that I usually take fairly big gaps between programming sessions (sometimes months, sometimes weeks, rarely days) and I want to just be able to make thing without need to look at a tutorial nearly every step of the way and to not have as big of gaps between programming sessions. I heard contributing to other projects could help with skill, but it already feels like I bar