Hello, I am also new at self hosting semi recently. There is a bit of a learning curve, but once your over the hump, it gets a lot better.

First, 100% use docker desktop if your using windows. Most github projects have a docker file you can use. This will take out 90% of the setup required and you don't have to worry about applications not working on your computer. Thats the point of docker, to remove the "doesn't work on my computer" problem.

Here are some independent github projects that I found useful for me and were simple to setup.

• excalidraw - digital whiteboard. You don't need to self host this, but its a fun little project. You can just go to excalidraw.com and have 100% of the same features (it is all saved in your browser's cache).
• mealie - I cook a lot so this is a nice 'permanent' cook book to have.
• warracker - I always forget what I have warranties on, so this will be helpful for me.
• Arr projects like sonarr, radarr, Jellyfin - sonarr and radarr is a good project to sink your teeth into (do not recommend using docker for this, I had issues with my docker container connecting to my external drives because I have Windows Home edition). This ecosystem is usually everyone's first project along with pihole since its so useful. Sonarr and radarr will probably take you a week or weekend, Jellyfin will take like 5 min.