Project Based Learning

I would like to take the curriculum for each of my classes and make them project based and more relevant to real life scenarios. I've started doing this little by little, but it takes up a great amount of time. I have a few thoughts - I think that teachers need more time somewhere built in - otherwise our whole life becomes teaching and planning. If you are dedicated and want the best for your students, teaching is your life and you have little time for the things that you enjoy doing outside of teaching. Second, I graduated high school 10 years ago. Things were not THAT much different then as they are now, as far as careers students were pursuing - yet there was not so much pressure on teachers (that I know of) to change how they teach. I think that it is very important for teachers to teach students what they will need to know for the workplace, but teachers also need the support and time to do so. It is overwhelming to try to differentiate to reach every student, teach in a 21st century manner, and deal with many IEPs for students. How do you do it?