I practice every day but feel like I don’t actually know how to practice

Basically what the title says — I practice daily (usually 1–1.5 hours), but I’m starting to realise I don’t really know how to make my practice effective, and I feel a bit stuck progress-wise.

Right now my sessions usually look like:

• Scales for 10–20 mins as a warm-up
• Finger exercises from a Cassia Harvey book (15–20 mins)
• Repertoire for ~20–30 mins (lesson pieces + school music)

The problem is it often feels like I’m just playing things through instead of actually improving them. I finish my practice feeling like I just did a chore instead of feeling like I've gotten better

A few things I struggle with:

• I don’t really understand how people use a metronome properly
• When I try etudes, I don’t know what I’m supposed to do with them besides play them
• My practice feels unfocused and kind of repetitive

I’m hoping to apply to a conservatoire in the future, so I’d really like to build good habits now rather than later.

How do you structure your practice? What actually made a difference for you? Any tips (or practice strategies you wish you learned earlier) would be really appreciated :)