My sourdough used to run on a fixed clock, 3 hours at room temp then shape. Anxious nights throw that off, some weeks I’m still awake at 2am and the kitchen’s colder by the time I get to it, so the clock stopped meaning anything.
Switched to the poke test instead:
– press a finger in, dough springs back slow and leaves a small dent, it’s ready
– doesn’t matter if that took 90 minutes or 5 hours
– no more alarm set for “check the dough”
Also stopped logging rise time as its own line in my notebook. It’s just noted under the same entry as sleep now, since one is clearly driving the other. One less number to stare at wondering why it’s off.