Yes, there is a direct correlation between the keyword difficulty and the time it takes to rank for it. There is also a concept/formula that can predict how difficult it would be to rank for a particular keyword. It is called Keyword Golden Ratio (KGR) and is developed by Doug Cunnington. KGR is calculated by dividing the number of allintitle Google results for a specific keyword by its search volume. If the KGR for a keyword is less than 0.25, it's a low-competitive keyword that you can rank for easily and quickly. Please note that 0.25 is just a rule of thumb and you can select any threshold you think is right for you.
There is also a nifty tool built for this, called Allintitle Bulk Search tool that calculates the KGR score for many keywords at once: https://allintitle.co
Hope this helps.