Nancy Drew is awesome.

#1. Timing. The game operates according to an in-game clock. Five minutes of real time equals one in-game hour. My route is set up so I can talk to Louis and Charlie during the 4:00 hour, then snoop in their areas when they leave at 5:00. That saves time, because I don't have to make a return trip to Nancy's room to reset the in-game clock.

#2. Seance Skip. The second time you talk to Abby in the game, it triggers a long seance cutscene. I triggered the optional fire sequence early, which lets me skip the seance scene. It's a timesaver because the fire sequence is about thirty seconds shorter. Also, it lets me avoid talking to Abby a third time.

#3. Audio. I play the game with Nancy's audio turned off, which saves time during all the conversations. I briefly turn off the character audio, to save time during the phone call with Emily. I would have left the character off for the entire game, but that causes the game to crash, so I only did it the one time.