Mandarin tones are not decoration. They are part of the word itself, which means a correct consonant and vowel can still sound wrong if the tone is off.
A practical way to learn tones is to train them in pairs and short phrases instead of isolated syllables. This helps your ear adapt to how tones change in real speech and improves recall when speaking.
Record yourself regularly and compare your pronunciation to native audio. Fast feedback is more valuable than passive listening because it reveals the gap between what you think you said and what you actually produced.