I agree, Ty.  When I'm checking for fair, I'll often look away as I'm moving my fingers over the wood to feel for irregularities.  It's a pleasant shift in gears.
That shift in speed and approach is such a great way to get different parts of the brain and your personality engaged. Projects that has both the rational enginer and the sensitive, emotional artist engaged feels more satisfying, at least to me.

"The good chair is a task one is never completely done with" Hans Wegner