I'm VERY slow, and my sewing room is set up to keep me that way. I have to walk from the cutting board to the machine, from the machine to the ironing board, and from the ironing board to the design wall. My way of sewing keeps me moving around and I like it that way. Keeps me from doing things "automatically" and well ... screwing it up!!
I do take advantage of time savers when I can though - like chain piecing, and cutting multiple pieces at a time. But for the most part I'm a part-time sewer (*maybe* twice a week - *maybe* once every two weeks!), and I'm a slow sewere so yeah - it takes me forever to get a project from conception to completion.