What are some ideas to help make my gameplay better?

Hmm... I'm not much of a play-for-the-challenge person. In fact I typically use mods to get rid of challenge and make things easier. My focus is always more on playing out a story that I'm making up in my head, so the built-in gameplay challenges often get in the way of what I want to create, and I have more fun if I remove them so that I can freely do what I want from my own imagination.

But if you prefer things to be more difficult, I think @SnowBnuuy 's suggestions to take a look at some of the player challenges is good. Adding some rules and objectives could be fun for you. By putting limits on what you can and can't do, you can create some more difficult scenarios that you might get excited about.

Most of the things in game that I can think of which can be challenging are things like having a household with a lot of toddlers, having several sims in the university at the same time, giving your sim an aspiration that is counter to their traits (like a gloomy comedian for example), or using some of the lot traits like "off the grid", "cursed", or "gremlins". I don't have Paranormal yet, but it sounds like the haunted residence can actually be pretty challenging too if that interests you.

And, nothing wrong with pursuing other interests for a while. Sometimes boredom is just a sign that you've been doing one activity too long, and it's time to do something else until you feel drawn back to the original thing you loved.