You'll start the game with an arrow on a bar. That arrow moves down the bar slowly. If it reaches the end you lose. Press and hold a lever to make it go back up. The catch is as time goes on, other gadgets appear that have timers, and if those hit zero then the main arrow gets pushed down the bar. Press Green flag after each loss to play again.
No, holding down the lever for the main arrow and doing nothing else does not work. Here is some info for strategies When the timer for the blue button expires it pushes the arrow to the left 50 Units Clock, 50 units Math, 100 units Blue Arrow, 100 Units Each time a timer expires the block moves 50 units left