I actually found using the vowels charts, which show open and closed tongue positions, to be very helpful when learned for Spanish with videos by the Mimic Method like this one. https://www.mimicmethod.com/lms-spanish-vowels-2/
The other thing I found helpful was practicing with this site http://soundsofspeech.uiowa.edu/index.html#english
Think about if you don't have a system to guide you how to approach a new word, how many times do you have to check a new word with audio assistance from dictionary.
I actually learnt the IPA by heart. I studied with books accompanied by lots of youtube videos, podcast and all the material that I could find.
As for "Tips", I'd say "don't panic" it seems scary at first but soon you'll begin to spot the patterns and how it works. It's not difficult to memorize and learn, in fact, that's the easy part... what it's complicated is to apply it when talking. Personally, I can say that it helped me to visualize the different sounds when I hear or read a new word (it's like when the mathematicians start to see numbers everywhere, well... I kind of see phonemes in every word)
As for the specific question you asked, I'd say that it depends on what is your objective. The easy path would be to focus just on the symbols and sounds, that would take you maybe a couple of hours.... but if you could just dedicate some more effort to study the whole system, that would give you a deeper understanding of the IPA. Well... I really love phonetics and always try to encourage everybody to study it, so I'd suggest reading a couple of books about it.
Of course, I'm not saying that my speech in English is flawless, not at all! I'm just saying that it's a little bit better than when I didn't know anything about the IPA.
Good luck!
