[atonement]

Hello,
I just started attempting to learn to play guitar a few days ago. All I have been doing so far is a finger exercise, where I place my fingers on the top E string, playing one note at a time, and then moving one finger down at a time until I've went down to the bottom E, and then back up. Trying to stretch my fingers, and build strength... getting used to the strings, etc.

It's pretty difficult for me to do without my pinky or ring finger hitting another string.
A friend of mine who plays guitar told me to do this, that it will help me a lot.

That's pretty much all I've been doing since Sunday... The first two days it went decently, the second day it seemed like I was improving and hitting strings less. The day after that it seemed to go worse than the first two.

Right now it's really the only thing I know to practice, is an exercise like that real valuable to a beginner? And what else should I be doing?
Also... is it normal for me to feel like the first couple times went better?

I want badly to play, but don't know what else I should practice right off the bat.