I took a lot of time to understand how the shader editor works with the 3D Chest course provided by Kent @theluthier and modeling it was a lot of fun. Definitely picked up more tips on effective modeling flows. Sharing object data is probably the most important thing I took away from this course, and I can see it saving me HOURS in the modeling and texturing process.
Also, this course pushed me to purchase my first drawing tablet for the sake of texture painting. I may take up the sculpting lesson again (I was having a very hard time with how unnatural the mouse felt). What a great way to interact with 3D though, I can see a tablet improving my experience quite a bit as it feels natural.

