Try to get each test done as early as possible. Even when a feature is not fully finished yet, parts can probably already get tested.
Other than that I would focus on test automation. Very few tests should require manual work. Both your devs and QA engineers should work on this. Devs develop unit tests and component tests, QA is more focused on integration and end-to-end (this is not a hard rule, I currently work in a team where QA only does end-to-end). Of these only end-to-end typically requires some manual testing work, but by then almost all defects have already been found, so it rarely leads to blockers.
With test automation you can run your tests all the time and get much quicker feedback. Your devs don't have to wait till Tuesday to hear if things are ok and certainly don't have to wait another day for QA to finish testing.