I just pause the game whenever I'm not home to check in every hour or so. That's the only way I made it. I got a runner in my starting group and put her--and her only--on fishing. Put one guy to learning building. Put everyone else to researching. Upgrade building first, then farming (so you can build the dam and farm), then forget everything else till you get the highest farming level. Teach someone to make a fire, then teach 3 or 4 people how to gather firewood so they'll do it before the fire goes out. Don't have any children unless you have to so that you will have a child in the village for mushroom hunting. I had 2 babies 12 "years" apart out of necessity before I got my algae problem solved. Also, the farmers are dunderheads. You can't leave them alone and expect them to farm. Not even the master farmers. That's why I say pause the game when you're not around. You have to keep plopping your farmers onto the crops to get them to harvest or they'll go gathering coconuts instead and sit around right next to a full garden "worrying about food" while everyone in the village starves. Time your visits to coincide with crops, make sure they are all harvested, then do other things until the next crops are due. Pause any time you aren't available to babysit. You have to do this for the whole game unless you want your village to starve.