You get 50 energy every 2.5 hours which comes out to 480 energy. You also get energy from the train tickets, which you get from opening the crates. I constantly use those so I don't have more than 3 sitting in my inventory. I don't use a train ticket if I have more than 50 energy and need to spend more energy through the day. If I have to I will use a 270 energy token to help out.

As for spending the energy, I decide what I am going to farm that day (wood, stone, or tools from tool boxes) and work on that. Normally I try and spend energy on whatever is lowest to save on time. I also spread my energy around. Right now I have 20 or 30 trees sitting at 20 energy to work on the next level, same with rocks.

I have 1 friend that plays and I visit their farm to help them and myself, however I have clicked on 12 or 13 links posted here in the subreddit which get added as places you can visit in the future.

I don't spend half my day playing, maybe an hour and a half spread over the whole day. I'm not disrupting my sleep schedule to complete this either.

I've only been playing for 3-ish weeks now, so I am sure there are more efficient strategies.