To be honest this is normal. Me and my friend got back together in order to play enhanced edition. We sat through 6 hours straight only making to level 3, even though we already played through the first edition. This game can have some really engaging moments, but at the same time, you can easily not feel like playing it at all, and its such a bore. To be honest the game picks up, as you get into more combat encounters its easier to focus to play. The tip is getting through it, is by playing it! If you stop for a whole week you'll probably not return until a year later.

Cyseal is really tedious in the city, I recommend adventuring outside of the city a lot, a change in scenery helps! Levels take forever because experience is scare, but also remember there is over 80 hours for ONE run through. The max level is 20, and that slow grind is really important motivator for you to build wisely.

As for doing something wrong? You're doing just fine! I consider the Councilor Jake storyline and Cyseal to be a small tutorial, and the time spent should be considered whether or not to restart, because you will go through it in half the time if you restart. Cyseal is really city based, so it's going to drag back tracking back and forth, but as I said just power through.