Yep, it's very time consuming.
I spent two weeks travelling in one direction, found 4 or 5 earth like worlds & about 400 million in exploration data all told, but then the two weeks to get back was so slow. I was really tempted to just self destruct to get back to civilised space again. It's very quiet out there past the bubble.
You have to kind of make your own game up in your head, which is both good and bad. I tend to play it for a few months then leave it for 5 then come back.