Maybe the best thing to do would be to ask an instructor at your local flying club for 1/2 hour of their time?
When I was training, my instructor briefly described how to read NOTAMs the first time we did a cross-country together. The next cross-country he expected me to check the NOTAMs as part of the pre-flight planning (and for every flight after that, cross country or not). Of course, having only looked at them once before, and then only briefly, I had lots of questions and there were a few things which didn't make sense. Gradually I went through them one by one with the instructor until I understood it all. It's not simple - the hardest part, for me, is finding all the NOTAMs which are relevant, quickly. Which is why so many people rely on tools such as Notam Plot (fine, as long as you're confident your tool will not miss things out, of course!)
I did think about trying to actually answer your question, but decided that the answer would make be better in a book than it would in a post on an Internet forum! Sorry!
FFF
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