If you've got Discovery Channel, there's a documentary, regularly repeated called "Destination Venus" about the last unmanned probe to the planet. It was shot in a week (monday to friday) with an initial edit over the weekend (admittedly long days) with the final sequence shot live on the monday. The final edit then completed for broadcast on BBC2 the next day. It included chromakey, graphics and special effects and was probably up to your exacting standard.

It is possible.

If you're a professional... that's what you're bloody paid for!

Excuses and whingeing aren't acceptable. If your "proper" job is getting in the way of you delivering your video to the clients in a reasonable time then either give up your full-time job, take time-off to do the video work, using holiday time or unpaid leave if necessary, or stop playing at being a "pro" videographer and keep it as a hobby.

Edit: BTW, Some really nice stuff there GDR. I'm sure that any client would find that it's well up to their "exacting" standards. In fact, I would go so far as to say that this shows the point we're trying to make. If you shoot top-rate images, with the edit in mind, correctly exposed and composed, the edit goes smoothly. If you're taking too long in the edit, it's because your original footage wasn't up to scratch. As the saying goes "you can't polish a turd!"