Want to drop your bean preparation time down to about two minutes?

Cook them in a rice cooker. Just put them in with about 3:1 water to bean, press the button, and it turns itself off when they're done. Cooking time is still about an hour, but preparation time is a couple minutes.

I add olive oil, salt, and herbs (meat eaters can add bacon, ham, or whatever), which may add another minute to preparation time. You can make several meals worth of beans with a few minutes' effort and a dollar or two of ingredients.

I recommend the Hitachi Chime-o-matic if they still make them.