Advice for 7 day trip to Greek islands

Wife and I traveling to Greece for a week towards end of July.

Situation: we want to visit a few islands in the cluster around Paris Naxos Milos Mykonos. We also want to visit Chania for a couple days.

Complication: we arrive and leave from Athens. Our current itinerary is to arrive in Athens then take a ferry to Naxos for a few days and doing day trips. Then we want to take the long sea ferry to Crete that arrives at Heraklon and then take bus to Chania. But the issue is that day is such a waste in terms of travel. Any other options that go from central islands to chania directly?

Thanks so much.