I have in the past gone Premium with occasional bits of VIP and also felt that feeling of "wasting my VIP time of I don't log in RIGHT NOW!". I fixed that by just keeping VIP running. $10/mo is worth the DDO points and not having that feeling.
I'm trying to remember which part of the conversation with the Saga NPC allows you to preview the quests needed. Something about "show me the next quest" something something. Each time you do that it should have options below it for skipping it. Like with Gianthold, I know from the get-go that I'm not gonna do Crucible, so skip it immediately.