Does the timer stop if you rename your enchanted items... On an xbox it can take a while!
I don't think so. I think Bethesda kind of screwed up in this design - I realize the intent was to avoid the situation in Morrowind, where, e.g. you buff your intellgence, luck, etc with high-power, 3 or 4 second spells, then open the character sheet to begin enchanting, and can enchant as many items as you want with the buffs.
However, time-based limitations svck when your user interface svcks as badly as Skyrims does. You click on things and you get the wrong item or enchantment selected then have to go back and re-select, you want to take time to re-name an item, etc. I think the "right" way to do it would have been for enchantment potions to be effective for a single enchantment attempt. That is, "Your enchant skill is increased by 20 points for the next item you enchant". Either that, or allow the user to actually drink enchant potions from within the enchanter UI - e.g. you select your item, enchantment, and soul gem, rename the item, click the button to drink a potion, be selected with a list of potions containing +enchant effect, select the potion you wish to drink, drink it, then finish the enchantment.
However, it's clear that Bethesda didn't put sufficient thought into the interaction between their clunky, unresponsive, inaccurate user interface, and timed potions.