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Another suggestion to consider...
I always do my NH in two halves.
"south in the morning and north at night"
For my FS, I divided it into two halves. In my FS the top 12 are "north at night" and bottom 12 are "south in the morning"
I do the same for my world map. My city is center and I chose to have "south" continue to the right of my city and everything below. Same for the rest: From city, to the left and up is "night."
The main reason I did it was to reduce the spike of income and NH benefits. Players have different ways they choose when and who to help (I help everyone available because I still benefit even if it goes unreciprocated). I happen to choose 7:00 pm/am and it can fluctuate up to an hour. Some players give help in response to receiving it and others have their own schedule. This way, my better culture pieces have a better chance at being near-continuously polished by avoiding everyone (majority) hitting at the same time (more or less), and then spelled culture sits wasted because most NH already came (and settled for something else when the "better" culture was already chosen) and won't be back until the next day, leaving those culture pieces unhelped for long periods. (Not sure if I explained this clearly, but hopefully you have the idea.) Right now, the map for my larger city takes seven-ish (that feels like fifteen-ish) minutes just to do the half. I just plan for it in my schedule (and if it repeatedly hindered by my schedule, I just adjust my chosen timing). Someday my map will become too large to feel worth it. It is already a bit laborious, but I don't expect to change this practice anytime soon.
I felt the same as you during my first event. I had to wait a whole day because I had just helped everybody soon before. What this means for me now is that when NH is quested, I don't have to wait more than 12 hrs max, rather than a whole day.