absolute beginner quandary

I've always wanted to play guitar.

I'm 31. Wished I had started sooner.

Anyways, I wonder a few things.

I like to go slow when learning, especially since I worry about learning bad habits. I just signed up today (purchased the guitar this weekend) I bought a squier strat, since I wanted a headphone jack to make it easier on the roommate.

As a beginner, I wonder if I should be paying more attention looking at where my fingers are on the frets, or where I am picking. I have short stubby hands and it seems to be difficult to do some things, even simple stuff such as the "spider legs" exercise. This is especially true with the low E 3rd fret position. Most of the time with the 3rd fret my ring finger is not close to the fret so I get the irritating ringing sound.

I am going to try and find someone locally who can give lessons in persons at a reasonable price.

Neither is more important than the other, because both are required equally. You can be good at one, but if your bad at the other, then it's meaninless. You have the right idea about going slow.

Think about it like this. You're 31. Your fingers have been doing essentially the same thing for 31 years, and you are just now teaching them something completely new. It is GOING to be awkard, difficult, annoying, ect. A teacher can help guide you in different ways that a website can't. This website is great (from what I hear. Can't actually pay for it myself lol) but a 1 on 1 instructor can give you visual feedback as to what YOU are doing.

I found someone a few blocks away from me who is giving lessons. He seems to be a cool guy, although I was surprised that he spent so much detail introducing me to music theory in my first lesson. I was a little annoyed about it at first, but oh well. I'm sure if I tell him what I want to work on in the future it will happen. Most of it went in one ear and out the other, despite his patient attempts responding to my "what was that?"

I'm planning to try and get the most out of lessons as I can, ie: not do them very often, ie: focus on practicing. At $35 an hour can anyone blame me? :P

I do have to wonder something though. I am starting off with the "mechanics of fretting notes" in the fundamentals section, and am doing the exercises of the 1 finger per fret.

My teacher suggested I do these exercises in whole groupings, starting at the 5th fret. For example 6th string 5th fret, 6th string 7th fret, 5th string 5th fret, 5th string 7th fret, and so forth). Then I do 6th string 6th fret, 6th string 8th fret, 5th string 6th fret, 5th string 8th fret

I notice that if I accidentally strike the wrong string, that string is muted as a result of my fretting finger being close to it. This is especially common with my ring and pinky finger.

For the purpose of those exercises, should I be trying to not mute the other strings with my left hand? The reason why I wonder this is the guy in the mechanics of fretting notes video specifically talks about the advantages of muting the adjacent strings.

Is it just a matter of playing style? It seems to me that for the purpose of these exercises, IDEALLY, the adjacent strings should not be muted.

If that is the case, I have to wonder about all the practice I have done in the last two days being a waste of time, and something that I need to retrain myself on.