I've never had this issue before. the transactions updates very quickly. are you perhaps using a proxy?
No it's direct, is there any way to change the sync timer to be faster?
electrum syncs with the servers the moment it detects a new block from the server (and when you open electrum). so it should be instant and there's no way to change that.
issues with your internet connection and/or with the reachable servers are the only things that can cause slow sync.
ranochigo already provided the possible solutions. but try turning auto-connect on if you haven't tried that before.