The Japanese have a word for this it's called  "KAIZEN". Basically what it entails is having people from different areas of the  workplace looking at your whole process and eliminate all wasteful activities (anything that does not add add value to your product or service). They then implement these new simplified  "rules" which in most cases would free up a lot of time/monies spent on trivial things to concentrate on much bigger and better things - and it does'nt end there, it's a system of continous improvement. Toyota uses this concept and any wonder why they are so efficient????

Value Stream Mapping (VSM) is another concept and while most might think that these are primarily for big companies, you can take the concept(s) and apply it to your personal life, eg,taking a shower, how many people keep their faucets running continously during the time spent taking their showers. Well if you would simply turn of your faucets during the time you're soaping up yourselves you can save anywhere from 30 to 50% water, or even more.

Another thing that comes to mind is shopping, how many folks buys things JUST because it's ON SALE and then never uses it, only to have to chuck it in the garbage. As a rule of thumb i try to only buy what i NEED, not just what I WANT, you can save yourselves a few bucks alright going this route.....

Homeschooling vs. Public Schooling
Three hours at home vs. six hours at a public school. 

My view:
I propose six hour work days and companies being open during the "night" hours for those who are night owls, or just like working the night shift.  I don't know why we are so locked into the 9:00-5:00 schedule here in America.  2008 and we need to keep up with the global markets.  Here in Los Angeles following the scheduled work hours increases your time away from the family.  You can spend 2-4 hours a day just in traveling to and from work.  So we start our day in stressful traffic, go to work for eight hours or more, travel home with everyone else and then maybe spend 1-2 hours of quality time with the family.  No wonder most American's are so unhappy.  Two parents working and throw in fast food for dinner.

The "Energy Management" one is a particularly good technique I've
learned during grad school.  I entered with the mentality that I must
work all the time, stopping only to eat and sleep. I'd sometimes pull
all-nighters in the lab! I completely burned myself out which is not
uncommon among grad students. Consequently, I began focusing more on
health and well-being and find that on days in which I'm feeling tired
and unable to focus, I do not push myself.  Now, I work in shorter
bouts with longer recovery times in between, but the work I produce
during those shorter bouts is of a far better quality that my earlier
work when I wasn't taking any rest time.

I wonder what Jesus would have thought about input exceeding output to stop working on that task. 

Mary

Re the book The Four Hour Work Week: I wouldn't touch it! Why? Check some of the one-star reviews on Amazon.com and you'll probably be as disgusted as I was.

If you have a passion for it & you love your job, it's not like "work"....

I wholeheartedly agree with this, but there are a few things that prevent it from being done that way.

1. Management where I work often expects me to do 50% more in the time allotted to be done, much of which is non-essential or can be done better in far different ways.  Fortunately when managers know more about me they watch me less, so I can do it far better my way than theirs.

2. The faster people work the more mistakes are made, and it takes more time to correct mistakes than it would do  it right in the first place. So I spend much of my time correcting mistakes (made by manangers who want to prove how much they did) which I often complain about but have no power to prevent.

3. Federal and State laws sometimes require less efficient, no more safe or customer preferred methods to accomplish.  (I can't tell you what I see, or I would be in trouble for telling about a  refusal to obey a law.)

There are some points in the article and in the comments that are very interesting.

In the article, I am pointing mainly at the "Energy Management" and "Use Sharp Tools" point.  

A common problem is that people put more importance on the time invested than the results while we should be interested in the results.

I used to put a lot of good things in practice before starting to "work" and I was most of the time achieving a better quality result faster than most people (I often did stuff differently and noticed how people were taking the "hard" path).  The problem is, with all the respect to everyone, it is not 90% of the people that apply "efficient techniques".  Ironically, I am sure a lot think I am "complicating" it if I talk about "my techniques" (except for the people that saw me apply them and know the result I achieved).  However, like said in some comments here, it is sometime hard to put in practice because we work with people (co-workers, management, etc.) that doesn't necessary think that way and who work "too hard".  Being intense is great!  But doing it an inefficient way and waste your precious energy is not.  I can understand that different things could work for different people, but …

Another problem is that it is hard to "prove" these things work.  At school, it is easier to prove because the same works are given to everyone, while in the "world" this is not the case.  And unfortunately if you invite people to work differently, you will face a lot of problem, refusal, attack, etc. etc.

Another point, I would say that using the "best tools/techniques/path for the job" could save you a lot of time.  We unfortunately realize it after doing the job (some never realize). ;-)  When it is too hard, there is often a better way, takes the time to think about it and you will probably save that time and more after.

Note: the good comments I was talking about are the one by CogSciResearcher and marvinlzinn, I strongly suggest reading them.

On a practical level, I used to try and find tools and equipment that were the cheapest for doing the job I needed.  Over the last number of years, I have come to know the poor value of these purchases.  The 2 principles I now have are 'If you have the right tools (or materials)  - you have the job half done' and ' you get what you pay for'.  How many times have you started a job with the wrong tools and messed up materials like timber, tiles etc. you end up taking two hours to do a job that only should take one, because the other half of the time was going to the hardware store to get the right tools that you should have had in the first place or getting more materials to replace the ones you messed up - or worse still  because you injured yourself because you took short cuts with safety.  On the second principle I try and buy the most expensive tools and equipment I can afford because I believe you get what you pay for.  In nearly all instances it will be better that a cheap alternative for the reasons outlined above.  When I was younger I would have done a lot more DIY than now. My ego wouldn't let me call for the help of someone who could do it better - but now instead I would rather pay a qailified tradesman to do It.  I know it will be done better than I could do it and it gives me more time to spend with the family instead of being out in the shed trying to fix something for hours on end.