post-processing (retouching, editing, grading) absolutely kills me and sucks the joy out of photography for me, but i think i'm doing things wrong- can i kindly get some advice?

lots to unpack here...

i've been shooting for over 15 years, most of that time "professionally"- yes, people have actually (repeatedly) paid me...

but i feel like a massive hack, because in all those years, i actually don't know very much at all about photography. i'm also a musician and suffer the same thing there- 20 years playing my instrument, yet i'm a complete hack... i don't know any technique/theory, only get by via feel and pray for "happy accidents".

that's kind of an aside and more pertaining to the actual shooting process itself though rather than the reason why i'm posting here today, which is the stuff goes on after all that, and that is post-processing.

being that i'm majority self-taught (in all aspects of photography), i never learned the proper way to post-process (or manage data).

my process is as such:

-insert memory card into card reader

-open the folder on my desktop (i shoot jpeg + raw, only use the jpeg's to preview)

-make my selections using coloured tags

-open said selections in camera raw and "batch edit" as much as possible there, but usually make some individual tweaks

-open files in photoshop

-resize and start retouching, not working in layers, no idea about masks, etc., just all in one go/on one layer, using healing brush and clone stamp for 99% of my retouching work... then i use some plugin my old assistant installed years ago called "skin by sparklestock", which evens/smooths things out with the skin- i usually dial it down to 20-30% opacity depending on the image.

-once that retouch bit is done, if i really really care, i'll use selective colour to really dial it in to where i want, then play in curves and colour balance, etc.

-once i'm more or less "done", i then run the image thru camera raw again to make some additional tweaks, usually clarity and something with shadows + blacks

-then i do one more quick editing session in photoshop, usually also creating a black and white copy at this point, adding grain (ideally to cover up my mediocre retouching).

-done

i don't batch edit, but do this with every single picture i intend to edit from a session, so each photo ends up taking an hour or sometimes more, and it's just become so incredibly draining, to the point it's really sucked all the joy out of shooting for me... i no longer look forward to shoots- instead, i dread what's attached to them; what comes after... the editing... i don't know if it's a matter of caring maybe far too much, but i literally feel the life and energy get drained out of me after a retouching session... not to mention, i can slave away all those hours only to end up with inconsistent looking images, as i'm editing/grading each one individually vs. batch editing.

i've got to be doing something wrong in all of this... surely there are some steps i can be taking to even just slightly expedite this process. retouching, i get there's not a whole lot i can do to shave down, but the grading/editing part?

i know whatever it is will require some study and a learning curve, but if it can save some of my time and sanity, it'd be well worth it.

and from a business perspective, when i consider what my sessions cost on average and how much time and effort i put into them, i just don't see it as being good for me.

i do still love shooting, but shoot much less for the love/passion of it these days as the post-processing attached to paid work totally burns me out, and i don't want to pile on more of it, even if it's a passion project. it's crazy how even images that come straight out of camera looking solid can still require significant work to really get exactly where you want them, and i'm super ocd, so can't live with myself if i know i haven't squeezed every ounce out of the image to get it as close to my idea of perfect as possible for what it is.