One thing that helped me was watching youtubers play the game doing weird challenges. When i saw what experts were able to do (and often times how many mistakes they could work around) i realized that the game is waaaay more "frozen in time" than any Harvest Moon game was.

I think there's legitimately only like one or two thing that can be missed at all, and it's like one cutscene (that doesn't cut you out from anything with the npc).

For me the trick is the clock, I personally found it very intimidating! I found the best routine is to check the tv and see what your luck is for the day, check the calendar and see of i want to give someone a gift for their birthday, and then plan what i do for the day around that.

I don't personally take up the quests for the npcs because i don't know the map well and it felt more stressful. They don't seem to care! Chatting with them every day I can and giving them something they don't hate for their birthdays, I was already getting random npcs up to three hearts not even trying.

I could chat with you all day about it and this is already long enough, but i just have to remind myself the town is like a little special place just for me, almost completely frozen in time waiting to walk forward at my speed. ☺️