So this is my first self-made knife. I was wondering, can I anneal the knife for a shorter amount of time if i don't have a lot of time and still be able to work with it? (Im making it from a file, or a thinner piece of household metal that anyone else can think of) I really appreciate everyone's help on this thread. Thank you.

 Making knives is time consuming. If you don't have a lot of time,maybe you should find something else to do. If you're working with a file ,you will save yourself an exponential amount of frustration and time if you take care with the annealing process. Files are very brittle,I've broken my share of them by just putting pressure in the wrong spot. So the longer you anneal it (the slower it cools) ,the easier it will be to work with the result.  If you are hasty, the material may still retain some hardness,and trying to shape it will be  slow and difficult.

Scroll down and you will see a whole sub forum on knifemaking.There are stickys there which will answer most all of your questions.If you are annealing so that you can grind,then you should really give it time.