Is there any way to make my daily home duties, especially cooking, more efficient and to save time in that way?

I know this is a kind of strange question but cooking takes most of my time during the day, and I hardly have time for anything else. It’s not just the cooking but all the other activities around it as well… buying the ingredients, putting them away in the fridge and cabinet, then starting to set up for cooking, time spent cooking, setting the table, clearing the table, loading the dishwasher, unloading it when the dishes are clean, etc. There are endless steps and I feel that is never going to improve.

I think everyone who does cooking or is a ‘housewife’ (which I think is one of the hardest jobs to do) has experienced something similar. Cooking could be one of the main tasks of your day as it is the longest process (bottleneck) of your daily tasks. What can help you is to establish standards in your daily routine, and to eliminate waste. Observe yourself by “going and seeing” (Gemba) the process you are using at the moment. Is there any element which can be avoided or made simpler? Check how you put the ingredients in the fridge – is it the most effective way? Can you find everything you need in 3 seconds? How do you put the ingredients (spices, sugar, flour, etc.) in the cabinet or drawer? Are the most used ones in places where you can easily reach them, or are they in the back of the cabinet or a lower drawer so you have to bend all the time to get something out? Do you put all your cooking equipment in one place and can you find everything quickly, or do you waste minutes by searching for things? All those small seconds and minutes count, as at the end of the day they can add up to one or two hours you could be spending on other things which are more important to you. You can even save money by doing things differently. Are you easily able to identify what you need to buy in a supermarket, or do you sometimes buy more than what is required just “to make sure” because you don’t know if you have it at home or not? It’s possible that some of your older groceries might expire and need to be thrown away, which is an absolute waste. Be aware of these things so you can be much more effective, as well as saving time and money. Small changes can make a big difference.