Okay, if you want to find locations you're going to have to use google maps a lot. Tbh, the vast majority of the urban exploration hobby is searching google maps. It will basically be your constant.
Now, google maps is unfortunately outdated or inaccurate in a lot of instances so your goal should actually be to limit the amount of time you actually need to use your constant (Google maps) as much as possible.
The best way to do that is to have someone just tell you locations, or use a database like this one. However, that is not as easy as it seems since it often requires trust, but there are plenty of threads about getting people to trust you so I'll delegate to them.
So short of someone straight up telling you locations, the next best way to cut the amount of time you need to use google maps is see what locations actually exist in your areas. It's a lot harder to search for something that you don't know exists than searching for something that you know exists. So finding out which abandonments that exist in your area will cut how much you use your constant.
Look through Flickr, Instagram, local Facebook groups etc for hits about both your city and abandonments. For example, on instagram search #abandonedottawa or whatever city you're from. Even if the location isn't given, tbh it almost never will, the knowledge that "something" is out there is extremely valuable.
Sometimes the pictures even give enough of a clue where to look. For example, if you see a picture of an abandoned lighthouse, that reduces the amount you have to search on google maps since you know it's near the shore.
Another valuable asset that is massively overlooked to use is to watch the activities of your local street artist. Often they will write pieces in abandoned locations. Lots of these artists also run in crews and these crews have turfs, i.e. certain sectors in the overall city. Like most artists, they want to show off their art, thus they will often broadcast their work on social media. If you can figure out the turf, it will seriously reduce that amount of area you need to search google maps for.
"Local Public information" is also very useful to look for. Newspapers, police activity logs, city complaints, all frequently mention abandoned locations. They are also pretty easy to find on google. (When using google to search for information about locations make sure to use the advanced search tools and command prompts.) They often give the actual address, and/or name of the location. Check google very often. I tend to do an Ottawa/abandonment google search scrounge every 3 or 4 days.
Talking to locals can also be very rewarding. Everyone at some point in their life has seen an abandoned building or knows something about one so there's a lot of untapped information just below the surface. Talk to a high schooler, or a police(wo)man, or any members of the community. People love to talk, capitalize on that.
My last suggestion for cutting down how much you need to rely on google maps is to just live your life. Living and working in the area you want to find locations in will get you locations. All abandoned locations have to start somewhere, eventually one will pop up in your bubble. It also helps if you alternate the routes you travel through the city. It's not the most efficient way, but it's the most AFK and hopefully the least tedious since it is just living your life.
A combination of all these approaches should net you with a lot of locations over a relatively short amount of time without slaving away on google maps.