Soaking in water 24/48 hours tops - once they crack you will drown them . If you need to slow them down a bit use the paper towel or coffee filter method , you can stretch it out to 4/5 days .

What are you missing ? Depending on the soil u are using you shouldn’t need anything for a couple weeks at least

What do you need? There's no wrong way really to plant seeds. I believe in Mother nature's way. I either plant directly into the grow container that's pre soaked or jiffy pellets. And I can't express enough how important humidifiers are. Seedlings have no root system really so they get most of their water from the air via foliar feeding. The difference is huge and they get a great fast head start. They'll grow so fast.