diff --git a/.github/CONTRIBUTING.rst b/.github/CONTRIBUTING.rst
index 3e7dc6d12..040a37277 100644
--- a/.github/CONTRIBUTING.rst
+++ b/.github/CONTRIBUTING.rst
@@ -98,6 +98,13 @@ Here's how to make a one-off code change.
 
         $ pytest -v
 
+     Since the tests can take a while to run, you can speed things up by running them in parallel
+     using `pytest-xdist`_ (note that this may effect the result of the test in some rare cases):
+
+     .. code-block:: bash
+
+        $ pytest -v -n auto --dist=loadfile
+
      To run ``test_official`` (particularly useful if you made API changes), run
 
      .. code-block:: bash
@@ -280,3 +287,4 @@ break the API classes. For example:
 .. _`RTD build`: https://docs.python-telegram-bot.org/en/doc-fixes
 .. _`CSI`: https://standards.mousepawmedia.com/en/stable/csi.html
 .. _`section`: #documenting
+.. _`pytest-xdist`: https://github.com/pytest-dev/pytest-xdist
diff --git a/.github/workflows/test.yml b/.github/workflows/test.yml
index d7f5b7b84..7c73e11d8 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/test.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/test.yml
@@ -14,22 +14,10 @@ jobs:
   pytest:
     name: pytest
     runs-on: ${{matrix.os}}
-    continue-on-error: ${{ matrix.experimental }}
     strategy:
       matrix:
-        python-version: ['3.7', '3.8', '3.9', '3.10']
+        python-version: ['3.7', '3.8', '3.9', '3.10', '3.11.0-rc.2']
         os: [ubuntu-latest, windows-latest, macos-latest]
-        experimental: [false]
-        include:
-          - python-version: 3.11.0-rc.2
-            os: ubuntu-latest
-            experimental: true
-          - python-version: 3.11.0-rc.2
-            os: windows-latest
-            experimental: true
-          - python-version: 3.11.0-rc.2
-            os: macos-latest
-            experimental: true
       fail-fast: False
     steps:
       - uses: actions/checkout@v3
@@ -44,6 +32,7 @@ jobs:
           python -W ignore -m pip install -r requirements.txt
           python -W ignore -m pip install -r requirements-opts.txt
           python -W ignore -m pip install -r requirements-dev.txt
+          python -W ignore -m pip install pytest-xdist[psutil]
 
       - name: Test with pytest
         # We run 4 different suites here
@@ -65,7 +54,9 @@ jobs:
           no_rate_limiter_exit=$?
           export TEST_RATE_LIMITER='true'
           pip install -r requirements-opts.txt
-          pytest -v --cov --cov-append
+          # `-n auto --dist loadfile` uses pytest-xdist to run each test file on a different CPU
+          # worker
+          pytest -v --cov --cov-append -n auto --dist loadfile
           full_exit=$?
           special_exit=$(( no_pytz_exit > no_passport_exit ? no_pytz_exit : no_passport_exit ))
           special_exit=$(( special_exit > no_rate_limiter_exit ? special_exit : no_rate_limiter_exit ))
diff --git a/requirements-dev.txt b/requirements-dev.txt
index f6701c2ef..ba96e65a9 100644
--- a/requirements-dev.txt
+++ b/requirements-dev.txt
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@ pre-commit
 pytest==7.1.3
 pytest-asyncio==0.19.0
 pytest-timeout==2.1.0 # used to timeout tests
+pytest-xdist==2.5.0  # xdist runs tests in parallel
 
 flaky  # Used for flaky tests (flaky decorator)
 beautifulsoup4  # used in test_official for parsing tg docs
diff --git a/tests/test_bot.py b/tests/test_bot.py
index 8e94e1cb1..209139237 100644
--- a/tests/test_bot.py
+++ b/tests/test_bot.py
@@ -279,6 +279,8 @@ class TestBot:
                     print(record)
                     if record.getMessage().startswith("Task was destroyed but it is pending"):
                         caplog.records.pop(idx)
+                    if record.getMessage().startswith("Task exception was never retrieved"):
+                        caplog.records.pop(idx)
             assert len(caplog.records) == 3
             assert caplog.records[0].getMessage().startswith("Entering: get_me")
             assert caplog.records[-1].getMessage().startswith("Exiting: get_me")
diff --git a/tests/test_datetime.py b/tests/test_datetime.py
index 38a820102..013053703 100644
--- a/tests/test_datetime.py
+++ b/tests/test_datetime.py
@@ -31,8 +31,8 @@ from telegram.ext import Defaults
 from tests.conftest import env_var_2_bool
 
 ABSOLUTE_TIME_SPECS = [
-    dtm.datetime.now(tz=dtm.timezone(dtm.timedelta(hours=-7))),
-    dtm.datetime.utcnow(),
+    dtm.datetime.now(tz=dtm.timezone(dtm.timedelta(hours=-7))).replace(second=0, microsecond=0),
+    dtm.datetime.utcnow().replace(second=0, microsecond=0),
 ]
 DELTA_TIME_SPECS = [dtm.timedelta(hours=3, seconds=42, milliseconds=2), 30, 7.5]
 TIME_OF_DAY_TIME_SPECS = [