My child spent fifteen minutes making a beautiful heading for a five-minute exercise. I'm delighted with the creativity and also concerned about the growing unfinished pile. How do you protect the fun while still getting a task finished?
Offer a small decorating window after the necessary work, not before every question.
The heading can be a reward after the main exercise, not a substitute for it.
The child did much better when the rough work could stay rough. One clean final answer was enough without polishing the entire page.
A rough sketch can be better than making a polished page before the actual answers exist.
Separate art time from practice time without calling either a waste.
The artwork deserves time too, just not as a replacement for answering the question.
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