It's daunting at first, but once you find a routine it's easy. The concepts you need to learn:

1. Like crafting, make sure the collecting skill is active when you gather
2. For BTN/MIN, collectible nodes appear on specific Eorzean times of day on specific slots. For FSH they appear in specific fishing spots on specific times.
3. For BTN/MIN, collectibility rating is increased via specific skills while gathering and is affected by Perception. For FSH, collectibility is mostly under the whims of RNGesus, however using Patience increases the likelihood of high collectibility fish.

Favor System is when you activate a favor for a specific map, which gives you a timer to collect as many favor nodes within the time limit. These items are mostly used to collect items that are exchanged for non-scrip crafting mats which are needed for many 2 and 3 star stuff.