Looking at it in terms of the long term isn't going to be very helpful if it freaks you out. Really, the only reasons you should take a long game approach is in terms of organizing support (pharmacotherapy+behavioral treatment+therapy+peer support) and looking forward to the day you won't have to take something every day to feel normal.
It's much, much more useful to just focus on each week, each day, one week and day at a time. That adage is super helpful, particular when it comes to a long taper like that useful with methadone or benzos.
Basically you should your plan your taper in weekly terms. Meaning, focus on how each drop affects you, nothing bigger picture. As long as you don't get to radical with how much you drop (i.e. no more than 1mg/week), you should be fairly comfortable. However, pay attention to how you feel on day 1-3 (at that is when a drop is most obvious) and then days 5-7 after each drop. If you haven't started to stabilize after a drop by day 5-7, take a week off from your taper to readjust.
How bad is your withdrawal after you drop? Like, not how bad do you think it is, but what symptoms are you experiencing? Can you describe what it feels like or what you're experiencing? Does the withdrawal abate after each drop around day 3-5? If not I'd suggest dropping once every other week instead of weekly.
Something else I found really helpful was asking for blind dosing. All that means is that the nurse won't remind you what your dose is each time you dose. You'll totally still know what it is (trust me), but it helps not being reminded what it is by staff IME.
If 1mg drops each week is too uncomfortable, try dropping every two weeks. 1mg drops per week shouldn't be too uncomfortable, and certainly not once every two weeks. If drops are two uncomfortable there are other meds and behavioral/lifestyle practices that can really help. Make sure you're getting enough sleep (if you're not, try a sleep med like melatonin, doxylamine, trazadone or Seroquel - in other words a non-habit forming one), eating three healthy meals per day (well balanced in terms of carbs, protein, leafy green stuff and fruit - ideally the more you can avoid processed and pre-made foodstuff, the better you'll feel) and getting some kind of daily exercise (even just talking an hour long walk once or twice a day goes a loooong way to helping, so going hardcore at the gym isn't necessary unless you enjoy that kind of thing).
Also, having a therapist, especially someone who is familiar with how to properly get off meds like buprenorphine and methadone, can be really helpful. It can be difficult to find such a therapist, or even one you seem to benefit from/get alone with, so you'll probably have to experiment here.
Other than healthy lifestyle choices and focusing on the hear and now to avoid getting to anxious or stressed out about the future (as, in reality, you have no idea what the future will bring until it does, or doesn't), the big take aware here is that the long amount of time it takes to get off methadone using a proper (i.e. comfortable) taper is that it's actually a big blessing in disguise.
What I mean is that the time it takes to transition off methadone via taper gives you time to get your affairs in order in terms of A) establishing healthy lifestyle habits (especially re healthy patterns of sleep, diet, exercise and leisure activities), get yourself organizes with an MD in terms of comfort meds for the detox, organize some form of treatment like inpatient detox or 90 day IOP, get established with some sort of peer support community (I found MBSR and the secular mindfulness community to be much to my liking, but anything works as long as you benefit from it and feel good about it, so it could be NA, could be AA, could be something totally non recovery related too like a sewing group - literally whatever involves people supportive of your process and focused on something you feel good about and safe engaging with), and get things organized with work/family/school for when it comes to when you'll need to take a week or two to deal with the acute withdrawal down the road.
So, this time is really a blessing like I said. It gives you time to get your shit together, basically, and get yourself in a position setting yourself up for success in early recovery. The more you can focus on improving your health, coping skills and getting healthy habits and support already in place for when they'll be most necessary, the better your chances are and the easier it will be.
In my case, I spent about two years tapering and getting myself ready in terms of a good psychiatrist, peer support (namely SL on BL, MARC, ATS and Refuge Recovery) and lifestyle habits. The single biggest thing was probably learning a lot about mindfulness and how to effectively use meditation to self regulate. It was amazing how much of a difference that made is allowing me to more skillfully manage the discomfort (particularly the stress) of withdrawal. But it takes quite a while to establish a daily practice for most people, and I spend a lot of time getting myself to a point where that stuff was basically second nature before I tried to really deal with coming off methadone.
Methadone really isn't advised until you've got your life in order (all of it). Now, if tapering becomes more painful than not, you're already fairly low and could just switch straight to buprenorphine (either for a six month extended taper off that or just using it for a few weeks to deal with acute withdrawal). But even then, don't rush to just get off methadone. If you don't have the habit and skillset in place and already established prior to attempting to get off the ORT, it isn't really reason to expect yourself to be able to do that very effectively. What I mean is that, unless you haven't already changed your habits, thinking and behavior for the more skillful self reliance and healthy, and you're still doing the same stuff you were when you got on methadone originally, it isn't realistic to expect yourself to be able to deal with life without some form of ORT.
If you just need off methadone now (for whatever reason) but haven't established the healthy habits and whatnot that will enable you to really move ahead with your early recovery, that would probably be the best case for an extended taper using buprenorphine. You could switch right to that (basically), and then use the time you spend tapering off that get these healthy habits established before you get off ORT entirely. Buprenorphine is far inferior to methadone when it comes to support with cravings, but it will still help enough so that you can realistically learn new healthy habits (and it doesn't have many of the restrictions or stigma associated with methadone).
Unless it is absolutely necessary (please explain why if so), I really suggest you just stay on methadone until you're ready to get off it. Yes, it takes time, but you'll be setting yourself up for success if you can put in the effort to invest in yourself now in terms of your physiological, mental, emotion and interpersonal health and wellbeing. And if you spend as much time as you need (i.e. don't rush - this isn't a sprint, it's a long, long, long marathon, a lifelong walk with the occasional sprint more like), when the time comes you feel ready, coming off ORT will be more manageable than you could ever imagine.
Sadly very few doctors know much about ORT or how to effectively come off it (most of them at best simply don't emphasize the important of establishing lifestyle choices prior to attempting detoxification). There is a really good doctor out of I think Maryland or Ohio or somewhere that is one of the US's foremost MD experts on stuff like ORT, but I forget his name off the top of my head. If you want his info let me know, I can look it up (pm me or quote this post so I know you need a reply). His big thing is encouraging people to use buprenorphine for an extended detox if not acute withdrawal after getting off methadone though, so be prepared for that. But he's pretty much the best I've encountered, and his office is quite good about talking to folks about this stuff.
