Ender 3 V3 SE leveling.

I know this is on here many times, but, honestly, I need someone to dumb it down a bit for me. I am completely new to 3D printers and printing, and the auto leveling completely confuses me. I bought a refurbished Ender 3 V3 SE, mostly because of the price and the auto leveling feature, but, when I did the initial auto leveling, the numbers ranged from -0.17 to 0.56, so, I manually set them all to 0.00. Was I supposed to do that? The other thing I noticed is, the nozzle, with the printer off or on, seems extremely high above the bed. I haven’t checked what the printer says the height is, but, where it sits now, I can almost slide my pinky between the bed and the nozzle. Is there an easy way to get the nozzle to a good height, other than adjusting it at the beginning of every print? I know about the paper method, but, the one and only time I have so far tried it, the nozzle still seemed too high.