What to practice?
 

Lately I find My practice sessions usually go from after dinner until around 9.30pm so on average about 3 hrs a night most weeknights. Although this isn't just constant playing as I am also searching online for YouTube videos on how to play various songs, techniques etc.
My main practice consists of playing along to a few songs on riffstation that I'm trying to master and also finding a YouTube video on playing a song I like (I'm a big Tim McGraw fan) and trying to learn to play that. I know there are some people who think this method is fine whilst others think it's not a good way to learn and that I should also be doing proper structured lessons or learning to play scales etc as well.

So what are your thoughts on this? How many of you just practiced playing songs you liked and how many did scales and proper structured lessons either online or with an instructor?
I considered paying for lessons but am on the fence as to if it's worth it or not.

Now that I have my electric guitar I find I play that 75% of the time as it is much easier to play than my acoustic.

Scales, arpeggios, advanced chord voicings etc. are tools and practicing them is how you acquire those tools. If you don't have a specific use for a tool, I wouldn't bother acquiring it.
Learning to play complete songs is what the majority of folks find most rewarding since it's what you and anyone else would prefer to hear.
I always suggest that folks work on learning music by ear, in addition to whatever method they may be using. This does not come natural to many folks, but really does enhance your musicianship, the knowledge of your instrument and your ability to play music with others (especially non-guitarists). Just like playing guitar, the more you do it, the easier it gets. :)

Figure out what you need to get better at to reach your goals.

Then figure out what you need to practice in order to improve those areas that need work.

Then figure out how much time you are going to spend on each area that needs work.

Then structure your practice time accordingly.

It all starts with having clear goals.

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I find myself trying to learn a new song and when I think I've almost got it down I'll move on to another one as I'm bored with that first song. But I'm never really playing the song properly.
My chord changes are quick enough to keep up with the song but they aren't accurate enough. Let's say I'm bout 80% accuracy.
I find myself muting or buzzing some strings etc And I don't know if this will improve with just continual practice at the same speed as the song, or if I should be not so concerned about songs right now and instead get my chord changes and accuracy on the strings?

Following up on FWL's pretty sound advice, you've ID'd an area that needs work (clean chord changes), that's a good place to focus some effort. You don't need to devote all your time to it, but set the bar higher; create a goal.
Trying to play stuff 'up to speed' over and over again imperfectly is practicing mistakes. You should never practice mistakes. The way to master problem sections is to slow them down to where you can play them w/out mistakes. Then bring them up to speed.
Regarding 'getting bored' learning songs, some things I've found that are very good for providing motivation are playing w/other musicians regularly, playing in front of people, and taking lessons - from a real person (whether on-line or in-the-flesh). Subscription sites like Truefire, Peghead Nation, etc are good, but don't give you the same motivation as reporting back to someone else.

I go for weekly lessons, this is roughly the routine I've been doing.

I don't get to practice as long as you do, usually I max out about an hour, sometimes if I'm lucky I get to practice in the morning before work so then maybe I'll get 2 hours. If I do that what I am kind of getting into is acoustic in the morning and the electric at night.

- Scale exercises to start. Not too many but I'll do single notes through a scale, then do it with alternate picking, then 2 picks per note, then lately I'm doing something where I move in 3rds up and down the scale. (a 3rd up, a 2nd back, then a 3rd up from there, etc.. with a similar pattern on the way down.) I do that as a warmup, usually the scales I'm being assigned are across 5 frets so it serves as some hand stretches too.

- Practice some chord progressions for a bit

- Then work on the songs. 2, perhaps 3 songs get worked on at a time. A song gets worked on about 3-4 weeks, depends on how hard it is and what I want to do. The "completeness" of the song is getting further and further along as I move forward. e.x. I am just starting to learn the solo from rock songs, etc.. so I'm starting to work on them longer. I feel like it's probably more like 2/3 songs my instructor suggests and 1/3 I ask for though.

- A few times a week if I have extra time or if I'm bored I'll go pick something up on youtube or from one of my books myself for fun. Often times that can lead to me going to my lesson and saying, "can we work on this sometime soon." Usually my teacher can very quickly make adjustments to the piece to help me get past sticking points and/or change it around so it's more to my level or better in terms of teaching me something specific he wants me to learn.

Thanks guys for the advice. Beninma I like your lesson routine and think I will write out my own lesson structure that I can follow. I've been thinking about getting some lessons to see how I'm going and maybe get an assessment 0n my plying so might do that also.

Thanks again.

In the process of learning a song, I heeded this advice.

Make what's hard easy (i.e. Master the mechanics)
Make what's easy habit (i.e. You own it, can play it at tempo from memory)
Make what's habit beautiful (Self explanatory)

Credit - Richard Smith

Sounds like you (OP) are getting stalled/bored between "easy" and "habit". The hard part for me is after you can achieve the habit stage, you then have to put your "soul" into the song to make it something your audience (in my case our cats, my wife, and my teacher) will like. The journey will never end, enjoy it.

I had to play for decades and get pretty darn 'mature' before I acknowledged just how valuable music was to me and saw the value in taking lessons. Chapeau to anyone who arrives to that point before I did! :)

I don't know what style you play, but right hand work is always great.... Cross picking, fingerstyle banjo rolls, etc. Setting aside time for just Barre chord work, learning new chords and inversions, etc. It's a fun hobby but easy to get sidetracked.