Reading the map

Hi, I’m struggling to read the map and efficiently find my objectives. This has made the game feel kind of clunky for me, as I end up running around like a headless chicken trying to find quest objectives. Do you have any tips as an experienced player that could make this easier to understand? For example, if the objective or a new, undiscovered waypoint is south of my current location shown on the map, should I just run south to find it?

Is that the right way of thinking, or should I be running around unlocking the whole map until I find what I’m looking for?