Time is valuable whether you work 16 hour days or 2 hour days.
Wasting it on mindless things like chopping vegetables or washing pots and pans is of course a choice you are free to make, but it is a foolish one in my view.
It's usually about 2x the time to clean up after a meal than it is to actually prepare it, in my experience. The cooking is easy, but cooking makes a mess of the stove, of the pots and pans, of the utensils, et c.
I‘ve never cleaned up longer than 5 minutes after a meal, and I‘m cooking 1-2x a day for a family of four. Cook just one dish, ideally in a single pan/pot or in the oven. Get a pressure cooker for one-pot-dishes, ideally a smart one with auto-shutdown. Get machine-washable utensils. Get a self-cleaning stove (who cares about the mess anyway). Coated pans can just be rinsed with a soft brush and dried immediately (only smelly stuff like fish needs to be soaked).
Wasting it on mindless things like chopping vegetables or washing pots and pans is of course a choice you are free to make, but it is a foolish one in my view.
It's usually about 2x the time to clean up after a meal than it is to actually prepare it, in my experience. The cooking is easy, but cooking makes a mess of the stove, of the pots and pans, of the utensils, et c.