Reading and Using Code

I know of the dangers of copying and pasting others’ code without understanding. But how do I make sure I understand as well as learn from the code I find online?

I follow these basic steps:

1. Comment everything in the code. Use documentation and Google to understand every single part of the code.
2. Rename the variables. Make the variable names as specific as possible to my code situation.
3. If this is a concept I want to learn, repeat the process with as many code examples as possible.