Advice on Getting Better from an Accomplished Piano Player (2011)
I've known /met a lot of serious students, some from living next door to Manhattan School of Music, and they all had different advice on practicing.  Some had very structured allocations of time, recording all practices and journaling their progress, some said they put their entire being into practicing one tune at a time.I recommend reading Kenny Werner's Effortless Mastery, which is probably in your public library if you're in a big city, and also the interviews in Wernick/Trischka's Masters of 5 String Banjo, currently going fore absurd asking prices on Amazon and  hard to find unless you know a banjo player.