I'm responding before reading the comments, so I apologize if I am repeating something said below. I have taken on curating as one of the major pieces of my Steem existence. Waiting out the 30 minute timer is painful sometimes. And often I forget to go back and give the upvote I meant to give.
I am curating new authors for the most part, and I know that many of them will not see too many votes on the posts I am digging up. They just aren't popular authors yet. So I want to be around that 30 minute timer so I maximize my curation reward.... I kind of see that as my "salary" for curating. I'll vote early if I think the author needs the reward more than I do, or if I just forget to check how long it has been. But the 30 minutes is a deterant more than a help to my curation duties.
On a personal note, I want to thank you and your wife for the couple of upvotes I got from your account in my first few months. Especially the post I made about my business trip to Virginia. Those rewards really helped me feel like I could find success here, in spite of all of the fog. Other people are allowed to agree or disagree on what any person thinks is a quality post, quality is subjective. I, for one, am glad you do take the time to go out and do some curation and find things you appreciate to upvote. I've not seen any of the other exchanges doing such a thing!
Thanks! Have a great night!