Time Machine annoyance

So I'm a big fan of Time Machine [link to Apple site] the automated backup that's part of Mac OS X Leopard. I've never experienced a disk failure but I know so many people who have that it's worth the peace of mind that it offers. I actually purchased a Time Capsule, which is basically an Airport networking base station with an integrated server hard drive. It's mainly for backup but I do keep some stuff on the drive for safe keeping.

The automated aspect of Time Machine is great. However the process often slows down my workflow. Backups occur every hour. In theory that's great. In practice not so great. It takes about 20 - 30 minutes to complete a backup. This means my computer is always backing up. Since my 'landline' is a VoIP Skype phone, the constant backups interferes with my phone service and other forms of network traffic. It is not uncommon for me to have to wait while my browser catches up. I would love to set it to backup every other hour but I can't. 

I hope Snow Leopard, the next OS X, improves Time Machine's efficiency/controls. I don't want to switch it off but sometimes I have to in order to get stuff done. This defeats the purpose, I think.