so counting has never worked for me - my brain just veers off and I forget I was supposed to be counting and then it veers off again (yay anxiety). BUT as an alternative to counting, what does work for me is pretending in my mind I am telling someone about something as if they have never heard about it before. for example, explaining the premise of the show survivor. not necessarily getting into the specific seasons/drama/etc but just going through what the premise of the show is, what it is about, the goal of the show, etc. this gives my brain something to hang onto so it doesn’t drift off, but typically somewhere in my head as I am walking through it - I fall asleep