Running a world in the background

[CyberFrog]

Hello fellow players,
I'd like to experience the game to the fullest but it seems impossible given the amount of time needed to grow crops and breed animals, such as goats, for milk. Therefore I was thinking if it'd be possible to run the world in the background while my computer is on, without being in the world as a player and without logging into the game. I reckon it'd have something to do with servers, however I am quite illiterate in that manner and I'd appreciate any assistance so I can enjoy this wonderful game without having to spend 50 hours to build a windmill.
That's why I'd like to know if it's possible to set up such a thing and how to do it, if possible. Any help is appreciated. Thank you. 

[Streetwind]

I don't think you need a server to get what you want. In fact, you may find that a server you only join intermittently makes things harder. Your food will spoil while you are absent and such things. Much better to be in a singleplayer world that only runs while you are present, and use other methods to achieve your goal. Like these handy commands and settings.

Don't use them all willy-nilly. Choose carefully what you want and which number you want to use. Messing with time too much can get... well, messy.

/worldConfig daysPerMonth 5 will make a month pass roughly twice as fast as the default 9. Ideally you would set this during world creating in the Customize menu. You can still use this command in an existing world, but your current calendar date might change quite drastically.

/time calendarspeedmul 1.0 doubles the progress of calendar time. The default value is 0.5, equaling two IRL minutes per ingame hour (or 48 IRL minutes for an ingame hour). 1.0 makes one ingame hour pass in a IRL minute, a value of 2.0 makes 2 ingame hours pass in an IRL minute, and so on. With this, days and nights will pass faster, but the simulation speed of the game will remain normal.

/time speed 120, on the other hand, changes the simulation speed. It's the same function that gets activated when you sleep through the night in a bed. The default value is 60, so 120 would run the game twice as fast. Higher values are possible. This isn't very useful for playing, but it can be used to fast-forward several days while you wait for something to happen. Just be careful you don't starve in the process.

/time setmonth is an alternative for quickly skipping several days. Supply the first three letters of the name of a month, and the calendar will instantly jump to the morning of the first day of that month. Anything dependant on the calendar, including but not limited to crop growth, food spoilage, and animal pregnancies will update accordingly. Note that you can only ever jump forward, meaning if you're in April and decide to jump to April, it won't go back to the first of the current month... it'll skip an entire year!

And as a bonus, a hidden setting:

/worldconfigcreate float cropGrowthRateMul 2.0 will double the speed with which crops grow. It accepts numbers as high as 10.
/worldconfig cropGrowthRateMul to adjust the number afterwards.

[CyberFrog]

Thank You, although it's not exactly what I had in mind, it solves my issue and saves me lots of time. This is what I've been looking for.