If I’m at my workstation for an extended period of time, why should I be retyping my password for sudo if I’ve already taken precautions for when I step away?

Here’s how to increase the time before sudo asks for your password again:

$ sudo visudo

Then add the following line somewhere nice:

Defaults timestamp_timeout=360

Then save the file and quit. The 360 timeout is in minutes, so that would be six hours. Adjust to your liking.