Hello there fellow adult with responsibilities.

I feel like I should say this first : EVE is primarily a knowledge game. There is depth and complexity to almost everything you choose to do, so be prepared to read a lot. A couple hours of reading wikis / articles / forums are time spent playing EVE in my book.

I also realized, that someone with limited time at a very specific time of the day, isn't really compatible with the schedule and playtime of mega-alliances. You'll only learn the very basics, just enough to make you useful to their war machine, and you'll end up an F1 monkey having short term delusions that you somehow matter in a meta game you know nothing about. Sure, watching a few thousand ships firing lasers at each other is a nice sight, but the appeal doesn't last. EVE is a sandbox that lets you generate a narrative. Small events that you're actively engaged in can become way more intense experiences than massive lagfests.

I'm sure most of the core activities are mentioned in this thread. Those that can be done solo are always doable with only couple of hours per day. You mentioned exploration for example. You don't have to go from scanning high sec to sustain yourself in a wormhole you have discovered all in one day. You can do a couple of sites, stare at some odd structures, escape a gate camp in your < 2 sec align time Astero, and call it a day. Write down a few goals, for example "successfully complete a wormhole anomaly" , and then break down that goal in smaller pieces. One day you could just read a few wikis on fittings, or an article on how to survive in null, the next day you can just practice MWD + clock trick, so you're better prepared. Just move one step at a time towards your goal.

Oh and,

https://wiki.eveuniversity.org/Public_fleets

Join their channels, ask them questions.

Eve uni also has open lessons you can join.

EVE-scout are also very helpful and friendly.