The instruction below is for 2010 but it applies to 2013 as well (http://sharepointwriting.blogspot.com/2011/10/error-occurred-in-deployment-step.html).
Error occurred in deployment step ‘Activate Features’: A timeout has occurred while invoking commands in SharePoint host process.
Solution
Increase the timeout that Visual Studio waits for SharePoint to deploy a feature
1. Open regedit.
2. Go to path [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\10.0\SharePointTools]
3. Create a new DWORD key called ChannelOperationTimeout.
4. Set the value you want. The value is a timeout in seconds. Eg: 240 for 4 minutes
Remind: Do not forget to restart your Visual Studio to take effect
j5423 