Where to start? Options

[H1gherReflex]

Hola, I'm new to this board and am excited to say this site has everything I've been looking for in building my 6GC. I'll go ahead and warn everyone that I haven't got much auto knowledge, but I'm a quick learner when it comes to hands on activities, so please have patience if I seem to get a little lost.

Onto the point:

I've owned a 97 ST for about a year now and have been wanting to basically just do the works from auto to manual tranny switch, 3S-GTE swap, ect. Problem is I'm not what I should start on first. I've read through a lot of the articles here (fantastic ones I might add) and get so many ideas flowing through my head that I overwhelm myself. My first thought is to buy a manual GT, but doing the swap myself would certainly add to experience for me.

Automatic (Ugh )
1.8 (Ugh again)
Liftback coupe

As of right now I'm a ricer as the the car came with a cat back exhaust and seemingly cheap cold air intake. The only real modifications I've done are replace the shifter with a custom knob (had to cut and solder the OD cable lol) and a little painting here and there on both the interior and exterior.

So in short, what are the main priorities in this build?
Thanks for your help.