I may not do things the RIGHT way, but what I do seems to work. I put 1,000 miles on a 86 rockhopper last year and it STILL has the original chain.
I get to ride about 3 miles of dirt/cinders on my 12.5 mile trip. I never clean my chain much to the anguish of the bikies in the family. *shrugs* I just keep applying lube. You can feel/hear when it starts to dry out. (before it squeaks!) I spray it down with whatever is handy in the garage. I then run it through a rag to wipe off the excess. The current lube of choice is a spray lithium. I've tried fancier stuff, but it just doesn't seem to matter. It seems like the chain dries out in 100 dry miles or 1 trip in the rain.
Summary: I don't clean my chain. I just keep lubin' it and wiping it down about 1/week or after each rainy day. That takes about 3 minutes/week.