What to practice?

So I started drawing a little while ago and I was wondering what I should practice. I want learn how to draw characters so I've been focusing on the figure and gesture but was wondering if there is anything else that I should be practicing. Also, as a beginner should I be doing timed figure/gesture drawings or should I just focus on getting my drawings to look as close to the reference as possible?
Thanks.

Well, what exactly is it you want to be in the future? If you still don't know, you should just focus on anatomy, figure, and gesture drawing. They are all needed and should take time to learn. The way I personally went about drawing characters was first start on the anatomy with the face, then shoulders, then waist etc. While doing that, I did a couple gesture drawings so my characters don't look so static. Hope I helped. :)