diff --git a/helpers/NotificationHelper.php b/helpers/NotificationHelper.php
index 179043f..4ffa01a 100644
--- a/helpers/NotificationHelper.php
+++ b/helpers/NotificationHelper.php
@@ -20,6 +20,12 @@ class NotificationHelper
         curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, json_encode($payload));
         curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
         curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_TIMEOUT, 10);
+        // A slow-but-not-fully-hung hookshot endpoint could otherwise add up
+        // to the full CURLOPT_TIMEOUT per fire() call, and a single request
+        // can call fire() (via notifyWatchers/sendCommentNotification/etc.)
+        // more than once sequentially — capping just the connect phase keeps
+        // that from stacking into tens of seconds of added latency.
+        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_CONNECTTIMEOUT, 3);
 
         $response  = curl_exec($ch);
         $httpCode  = curl_getinfo($ch, CURLINFO_HTTP_CODE);