My old colleague Mike Rowe said it this way: "Always leave it compiling" meaning, make a change and don't test it, just start the build and walk away. So when you returned you had something to dig into (didn't build, or did and needs trying).
Also, you had a good feeling that maybe what you just tried will fix the problem or whatever. So you don't go home frustrated and depressed.
Hah, for me, these moments are some of the most stressful moments of coding! I am about to find out a very important piece of information: whether I'm done or not.
It's an intense feeling of anticipation like how you feel while hearing, "We, the jury, find the defendant...". I would like to avoid stringing that out over a longer period than necessary.
Compiling is the riskiest time for me, as that's when I'm most likely to get distracted by something else. Sometimes during a 10 minute rebuild I just force myself to stare at it.
Also, you had a good feeling that maybe what you just tried will fix the problem or whatever. So you don't go home frustrated and depressed.