I can attest privacy can be real overwhelming and with crossfires happening it can be pretty daunting.
Before climbing that privacy tall mountain, asses your threat model, think of it like the equipment you will need to climb or otherwise rather what you have, and go from here, after assessing your threat model, go from here with your journey or we can get it rapid fire-ish if it’s severe, with that said assuming you have similar threat models to most people getting into privacy which is surveillance capitalism, here’s below what I have too say, if not let us know.
as many have said, think of it as a journey, climbing that tallest mountain but it’s ok if you don’t go to the Top quickly (but you never will and I explain later why and why that’s ok and just enjoy climbing the tallest mountain)
Begin with simple things as other said, first by eg. Improving security and auditing privacy settings of platforms you use like Google, try to navigate through security and privacy settings of your phone also to opt out of any data collection, it’s a good start.
Depending on if you;re iOS or Android:
iOS:
With the privacy and security settings checked, if you do utilize iCloud, start by enabling ADP to end-to-end encrypt your data which is a great start, and of course start utilizing password managers and hide-my alias (password manager is free but hide-my is iCloud+ locked iirc so yeah but still)
Android:
There’s isn’t much to say, I could be wrong about this but Google’s Android backups are end-to-end encrypted which is a nice one, by doing theusualy pirvacy and security checkups you should have done it
NOTE: It is generally recommended to use cross platform apps that won’t lock you into one ecosystem (eg. iCloud Photos → Ente Photos, iCloud drive → Proton Drive, etc.)
speaking of alternatives, now it is the time to check them out, Proton and Tuta makes seamless transitions from Gmail and Outlook nowadays I see no point in not trying them out, Proton offers a suite of apps like drive I mentioned before, password manager (generally recommended to separate your password manager or secure your account well otherwise and optionally turn on proton sentinel for extra protection.), calendar and for now just docs but it is a nice suite.
Tuta is also really good but you will be locked to theirs if you wanna move back to something like Proton seamlessly so I would make sure I wouldn’t regret Tuta, Tuta does not yet have Drive but it is in development and currently they only have Calendar and email. (finally for e-mails you can consider using custom domains so that you don;t have to give your new address if you do switch providers)
Speaking of easy switches to platforms, your browser and search engine, it becomes easier than ever, if you prefer something chromium based, Install brave, it should be able to prompt you to import your browsing data from your older browser like chrome, it comes by default with a strong adblocker so no need for uBlock origin imo and comes with brave search by default which you can always change, just avoid something like Google & Bing, Use DDG, Startpage, SearXNG, Brave Search. stuff like that.
Firefox and forks are good alternatives to Google’s chromium, generally best to use the forks but yeah, it’s also what Tor and Mullvad Browser are based out of. Point is there is options out there and it doesn’t have to be chrome or edge or anything like that.
Finally yes, using password managers and 2FA will dramatically improve security and in side effect, it’s a privacy enhancement
^ These never have been easier
Next up would be your Messengers, this one is a little tricky, not because of the barrier of entry but otherwise getting those around you to respect your choice and make the change.
I am lucky enough to have friends and my parents be on Signal but I’ve seen not so many have that luck, to the point they would still use WhatsApp or otherwise.
Generally it is easy to get in yourself and a great start imo is the Techlorians signal group if you can afford it!
Otherwise when you do get signal, there’s a great video on Youtube/Odysee from Naomi Brockwell on tricks to use to get them to use a More Private Messenger like Signal
https://inv.nadeko.net/watch?v=s9Ux8DFgMSM
Another easy step also is to get to use frontends of services you use like Youtube, I have used LibRedirect for years and a I highly recommend
And then start getting into the nitty grittys of privacy improvement, like getting a pixel and flashing GrapheneOS onto it (and it’s easy enough thanks to the web installer) or if you’re on iPhone, see above what I said before.
Doing these as like a journey can slowly but surely improve your privacy and likely security signficantly. You may also as well feel like you’re high enough on the tallest mountain at some point
but remember, the tallest mountain is impossible to reach the top unless you’re superhuman with so ever evolving stories, so it’s best to just enjoy climbing it instead!
Hope that helps.