If you have a multicore processor in your Mac, then instead of doing the traditional compile and install steps for a *nix program...
$ ./configure
$ make
$ make install
...use this version instead:
$ ./configure
$ make -j n
$ make install
The n in the second line is the number of jobs you want make to start. So to reduce compile time, replace n with the total number of cores in your Mac.
Mac OS X Hints
http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20070524074057479