Time flows in real time(see buff timers), Big skips are during rest and travel.
Best way to go about rest is always have supplies option checked and hunt. That will minimize both supply loss and camping time.
Travel and kingdom upgrades are by far the most time-consuming things, so efficient travel routing is nice.

Really though time is very lenient and most people end the game with a month left even on a blind run. Time pressure is mostly there for the optics and you need just some basic prioritizing to get by.

Only thing efficiency brings is getting kingdom upgraded faster and better master items faster and higher advisor checks meaning easier events and even more kingdom stats as a result. Rich get richer scenario. You can get hosed by really poor time management on the kingdom side if you fall behind the expected curve on advisor upgrades.