Don't think too much about cheaters. You will face them at any time control (perhaps not at bullet because it is very fast, but bullet is useless for improvement for sure), but it will not spoil your fun. In most cases you will get your points back. It is not like you will be facing them left and right, it is not like that. I am here for a year and perhaps I have face 10 cheaters in total in more than 300 games. That is nothing special.
Now to business in hand. 
What is your goal? Ask your self that. Do you wish to improve your chess or some casual fun is all that you need?
If you wish to improve, longer live games are best for that. For instance, I play 1 hour per side games. The shortest game you should play for improvement should be 15|10 (15 minutes with 10 seconds increment on every move). It is much more important to play a quality game over the amount of games played. It is much better to play 30 minute per side game than 6 5 minute per side blitz games or improvement sake. Shorter games doesn't give you the opportunity to think about the position on the board in greater depth. Speed chess is just different when compared to classical chess.
If the goal is just to have some fun, then you should play time control you like the most. But as I understand, this is not the case.
As for the plan, I started last February so I was in your shoes pretty recently. If you have the time to read a bit, this might be useful for you:
https://www.chess.com/blog/nklristic/the-beginners-tale-first-steps-to-chess-improvement
Good luck on your chess improvement.
Need advice on what time controls to focus on (and general training advice)
Don't think too much about cheaters. You will face them at any time control (perhaps not at bullet because it is very fast, but bullet is useless for improvement for sure), but it will not spoil your fun. In most cases you will get your points back. It is not like you will be facing them left and right, it is not like that. I am here for a year and perhaps I have face 10 cheaters in total in more than 300 games. That is nothing special.
Now to business in hand. What is your goal? Ask your self that. Do you wish to improve your chess or some casual fun is all that you need?
If you wish to improve, longer live games are best for that. For instance, I play 1 hour per side games. The shortest game you should play for improvement should be 15|10 (15 minutes with 10 seconds increment on every move). It is much more important to play a quality game over the amount of games played. It is much better to play 30 minute per side game than 6 5 minute per side blitz games or improvement sake. Shorter games doesn't give you the opportunity to think about the position on the board in greater depth. Speed chess is just different when compared to classical chess.
If the goal is just to have some fun, then you should play time control you like the most. But as I understand, this is not the case.
As for the plan, I started last February so I was in your shoes pretty recently. If you have the time to read a bit, this might be useful for you:
https://www.chess.com/blog/nklristic/the-beginners-tale-first-steps-to-chess-improvement
Good luck on your chess improvement.
Thank for the feedback. My goal is ultimately to improve since I like to see progress in any hobby I partake in and that's part of the fun for me. I have read through your article and the lessons mirror what you are saying and its also good to see I'm already doing a lot of what you suggested(checkmate patterns in drills and daily tactics). I also like that you started playing later in life like me so thats encouraging to see the progress you made as hope to make a similar level of progress.
I appreciate the youtube suggestions I just subscribed to all those channels. There is so much content online its hard to know which are useful.
I think I'll start with 30 min gams then as 1 hour is too long since I have about 1 hour a day and want to have time to study my game after. Luckily with the membership I can analyze my games so don't need to download the program you suggested.
Do you think its useful to stick with slow time control or is there benefit to play some faster time controls also?
That is correct, you can analyze here, but my advice, change depth to some bigger value. Depth 18 can produce some weird things (rarely as it is mostly correct but sometimes it gives an evaluation and then changes its mind after the move is played).
The only potential benefit from playing faster games is practicing openings, but I still think that it is not easy to get from one mindset to the other. In other words, if you play speed chess you might start playing too fast in slower games as well.
I would steer clear most of the time. If you like, you can practice openings with daily games as well. You are allowed to use opening book without engine evaluations there (it is actually implemented inside the actual game as one tab). Anyway, openings are not that important for weaker players (including myself as well).
Hello.If you need a partener to train/play I am here anytime.Doing lessons doesn't compare to real games.
Cheaters are probably rated 2500+, not around your rating. If they are they don't cheat very well... So I wouldn't worry.
At your level, you need to focus on develop attacking skills. This requires some time to implement in your process thinking, so I suggest you focus on playing only rapid games when you are in training mode. You can always play blitz for fun, but that is not gonna help you when you need to implement the fundamentals you are learning. I mean, It is tough to notice opportunities when you have time pressure over you.
When you play a game of chess it's you, your opponent, and the clock. Learning how to play chess with time controls takes practice. I use the bots a lot to practice chess and I always set a time control. For the easy bots I'll use 10 min. or 15|10 and for harder bots I use 30 min. or 45|45. Presently I have been using 30 min. for my Live Play games and I am still cutting it close with time on some of my games.
If you don't want to play cheaters, my best advice is to stay out of tournaments. The amount of cheaters is much lower than you imagine, and most of them are focused on getting medals by winning tournaments. Especially Arena tournaments.
I would focus on 15/10 or 10 minute, just because it gives you enough time to think, but at the same time, it is easy to fit into a day. These are per side, so 10 minutes can take up to 20 and 15 can take up to about 45, if it is a really long game. Usually, my experience is that they both take about 15 minutes in practice.
@stephenruby -
It's all here...
Improving Your Chess - Resources for Beginners and Beyond...
https://www.chess.com/blog/RussBell/improving-your-chess-resources-for-beginners-and-
https://www.chess.com/blog/RussBell
I started playing in Febuary of this year after getting interested in chess watching the queens gambit and some YouTube personalities play and bought the premium membership. I have so far been focusing on learning the fundamentals. I'm almost done with the lessons that are offered here( I just have advanced left to go). I'm also reading through the Everyman Chess series by Yasser Seriawan(almost done with the first book and plan to start tactics after that)
I need advice on how to best use my membership to learn. I am currently doing mostly tactics and the lessons. I have started doing the drills starting with the checkmates but I don't know what order to go with these after that. I have done the solo chess and finished all 10 levels but I'm not sure if I should focus on these to get faster or stick with tactics. (I got my vision to around mid 20's to learn the chess notation but don't practice it anymore)
I mainly need advice on what time control I should be focusing on to get better? I am nervous about cheaters though which I heard are most prevalent in the rapid 10 minute games. I understand I'll probably face cheaters at any time control but would prefer to avoid as many as I can.
I also would like to know of general training advice like are there certain articles or videos I should check out after going through the lessons? What drills should I focus on?
I appreciate any help you can provide me. Thanks for your time.