I see where you're coming from, as the timers for a lot of the crops can be intimidating. But I recommend only growing those more than 8 hours crops overnight for now, with many smaller harvests of carrot, blueberry, ect. during the day.
Also buying the upgrade to turn off "first crops" was DEFINITELY the right move, as the short timers are also only giving 1/12 as much as they should have been. That tutorial is a nerf that's there to give a feel for the idea without the waits.
TLDR: planet long grow time crops overnight, use shorter times during the day.
And don't worry, new things are unlocked as you progress to make these times much more flexible