Bread in glossy magazines looks like a full-time job. Bread at home is closer to laundry: you set a timer, you do a fold, you go back to your evening. The trick is to choose a schedule that lines up with your real life and stop apologizing to a flour-water mixture.
Most weeknights, we mix dough at 7 PM, do four folds during the next two hours, and cold-retard overnight in the fridge. The next morning takes ten minutes: preheat a Dutch oven, score, bake. The loaf hits the counter as you are pouring your second coffee.
A starter built once and fed twice a week from then on is plenty robust for this rhythm. Skip the discard math, skip the elaborate feeding ratios, and bake when you have time. The bread does not know what day it is.
