You can visit psp-hacks dot com if you want to find tutorials on how to do it.
It doesn't really take that long if you already have CFW on the one you want to hack.
It can take a lot longer if you need a Pandora battery and Magic Memory Stick.
Basically, if you have 3.40 OE CFW (or any other CFW will do) on your fat PSP, then you need to do the following: Update to 3.52 M33, then M33-4, after that 3.80 M33 and finally 3.80 M33-5. It's not complicated, but it takes time to download everything you need and run it. It might take you like 30 minutes (or longer if you're slow) or something to get all the way to 3.80, but you could just do part of it every day until you're done.
The slim can also have CFW on it, but you have to make Pandora's battery using your Fat and go from there.
I run CFW on both my Slim and Fat, but I also own over 60 PSP games, so Sony can bite my ass. No loading times is a blessing to me.