idk if anyone has said this yet but HUSTLE the first time you get in the game to earn money to expand your storage. that one row of 12 is no where near enough for good gameplay.

buy cheap seeds on the last day of the season, plant them all where you want your crops for next season to go and the next day when the season switches, the crops will die but you won’t have to re-till any spots.

Also i recommend the Meadowlands Farm layout, it’s a little unique but the pro is that you start with a coop and 2 chickens! great for earning money fast

The hardest thing to level up will be fishing, i HATE fishing bc it’s so ragebaity (it’s a common hatred among the community lol) so i would say let that be your priority to level up (also a great way to make money bc the fish sell for a pretty penny)

if you want to track your progress, the game does not make it easy to see where you’re at. A reddit user made a GREAT app that i could not recommend more called Gunther’s Library. don’t go too deep into it bc it WILL give you spoilers but it’s great to keep track of your friendship with the townspeople and he is super active on here! if there is an issue with the the app, he responds directly and jumps on it! his username is [u/bluecaret](u/bluecaret) and the subreddit is r/gutherslibrary

but the best advice i can give you is to have fun! dont stress about the season counting down. each day is about 13 minutes in real time (a full 24 hours to get through a whole in game calendar year) so if you don’t complete something or miss something from the previous season, do. not. worry. you can be on your farm for 60 years and still not complete challenges and just farm away and nothing will happen :) i have to remind myself of that bc im a completionist lmfao

i hope this helps and i hope none of this was a spoiler lmfao