With a constantly increasing rhythm of life it can be rather challenging to keep up, but there are ways to do things faster without extra strain.
Take reading, for example. How many times did you intend to spend ten minutes reading some newsletters in the Internet? And how many times did you end up wasting a whole hour? All the articles seemed to be equally important and you did not want to sacrifice any of them.
Really, there is no need to do that if you simply learn to read faster. With fast reading techniques you will not have to read abridged versions of the greatest classics for your literature studies instead of enjoying the unique style of the originals.
There are many courses and a lot of speed reading software you can use in order to master one of the fast reading techniques, but you can also try a few simple exercises to begin with.
First of all, it is recommended to be rid of so-called 'subvocalization': it's an inner voice you can hear while reading. It slows down the reading process, especially if you also experience slight movement of the tongue trying to articulate the words you read. As a result, your reading speed is limited to around three hundred words per minute. Needless to say, thoughts flow much faster than normal speech, which is why it is so important to leave the inner voice behind.
When your reading speed is almost equal to the speed of your thoughts, your mind does not stay idle and therefore a higher level of comprehension is guaranteed. To get rid of the subvocalizing habit, you can silently count from one to ten while reading. Alternatively, keep repeating any meaningless sound.
At the same time, make a deliberate effort to read faster, even if it affects your comprehension at first. Try to catch a few words with one glance instead of moving from one word to another. Of course, it would be difficult to increase the eye span to the whole line, though some gifted people can actually do that, but you should try your best to catch as many words as possible in order to drastically increase your reading speed.
Moving to the next level, it would be extremely practical to make use of your peripheral vision. Try to divide the page in half and try to read in diagonal mode. If half a page is too much for this purpose, start with smaller portions. Reading this way, you will be able to catch the most important phrases instead of 'digesting' every single word, which is comparatively difficult when you read in a linear fashion.
And there is nothing wrong in skimming. If you feel that a text is rather easy to understand without too much concentration, there is no need to feel 'guilty' about skipping the words or even passages of no importance.
Last but not least, do not hesitate to take breaks so your mind will have a chance to have rest. Of course, the whole point of your desire to read faster is to increase the volume of information you absorb in the shortest possible period, but don't forget that under such circumstances your mind works much more intensively and needs some time to adapt.