The first and (I hope) the most obvious thing to do is to collect resources. You will collect saplings, flowers (I'll talk about it later), food (berry bushes and carrots), tufts of grass, and flint.

You will have to get 12 flowers in order to make a Garland in order to easily keep up you sanity. The flint is used to make (for now) an ax and or pickax. The tufts of grass is used to make fire when crafted with wood. I would recommend making your fire near the night time minutes. I also recommend cooking your food. This should be repeated until you have found enough resources to settle down. I would also pick up almost everything.

The first thing to settling down is to find the perfect place. I would choose a place close to trees and or Beefalo ( the main source of poop or fertilizer). Now to really settle down, you will more than likely make a science machine which will allow you to prototype things that you can't make without it. I would also recommend making a chest or two and make a backpack to have even more storage.

Okay, now you base is all done, but sooner or later there could be wolves/hounds. The best way to protect yourself is to make wood or stone walls. The walls should go around the base area that you have made. after that you'll need something to protect yourself while adventuring. I would make wood armor which will make the backpack come off. Make a spear after that, the spear is much better than using the other tools.

Now you do it all over again to survive. or at least just find food n' stuff