Yeah this was me too, I found myself fixated on the timer, then I started computing factors of the numbers in my head, then I realised I just failed at doing nothing :<
You didn't fail. You succeeded...Doing nothing mostly means letting your mind go wherever it wants to.
Counting the time (seconds on a clock) is a good way to start doing nothing
One minor improvement idea: get rid of the timer during the nothing phase. I looked at it all the time.
You could show the timer once someone starts scrolling again.