How do I balance good design with real deadlines?

You did not become a designer to work fast. You became one to work well. Now you sit between a client's clock and your own standard, and every deadline feels like a small betrayal of your craft. But look at this plainly. Craft without limits is not a virtue. It is indulgence, and it will expand to fill any amount of time you give it. The deadline is simply the shape your work must take today. You cannot control how much time you get, what the client values, or how the work is judged later. You can control what you choose to do with the hours in front of you right now. That is the whole task.