It's very rare when I can sit down and knock out a design in one sitting. The entire world thinks that we can sit down and pump out a design in a few hours...start to finish.
That means IA, wireframing, planning, style discovery, and what not. I don't think I've been able to accomplish this since before I really understood what designing for the web was about...which is a lot more than just making things...pretty.
Where does quality come from?
Quality design doesn't happen overnight; it takes time....it takes patience. It takes getting away from your computer for awhile so that you can have a fresh set of eyes when you come back.
Sure, there are some people out there that can create beautiful sites in a couple of hours and still have time to kill, but what is the UX like? How balanced is the users eye when they view it? Can you pick any element on the design at random and give a logical expression to why it's where it is, and why it's even on the page in the first place?
The culture nclud has created is, by all means, perfect for a designer. If a design is giving you fits then get away from it, go play some Mario Kart.
And finally the point
The point of this entire post is don't expect yourself to crunch out a design in a few hours...and if they do expect you to then you probably should fire the client and move onto someone who understands the time it takes to accomplish a design that is both beautiful and logical.
Until next time, follow me on twitter, @michaeldick