ok himu. lay out some stuff I should be trying to do or looking out for?
Hmmmmmmm
1. Try to get to 100% mayor approval so you can start doing ordinances and pass laws. To do that sit in the mayor chair at town hall and talk to Isabelle. She'll give you approval rating % as well as give you a task to help you achieve that. Right now, my task is watering all the plants in my town. I'm up to 68%. I figure if I keep going I may get to 100% tonight.
2. Talk to Isabelle at her desk and do the "what can I do for towns people?" thing. This is your tutorial. It ended with her having me fish up three different fish to add to my encyclopedia, and she rewarded me with a water can.
3. Make sure your town is neat and clean. Pick up cans, trash, weeds, and water the plants. Knock some fruit out of your trees and plant those.
4. Fish and hunt bugs at night. Different stuff comes out at different seasons and different time periods so you'll probably get different bugs and fish tonight than what you were getting earlier today from daylight to sunset.
5. Customize your town and make stuff! Fabrics, tiles;etc
Do all this? Just give the game a break and crack it open tomorrow to see what the results of your efforts are. Buy new stuff (hope we get black or blue flowers at nook's shop tomorrow), and keep on keepin' on. You don't always have to make a play session long. Just set a goal (fishing, water plants, add something new to museum, whatever) and do it, then turn the game off and come back when you want something else to do.