Near the end of my dissertation authoring, I found myself needing two things: discipline around taking breaks, and a way to know if I was over-odds on finding rare Pokemon in video games. I swear they are linked, just hang on-

Shiny hunting pokemon takes encountering thousands of Pokemon in-game. The reward is satisfying to a select few, but being able to show off a slightly pixel-swapped Chandelure was a hyper-fixation I couldn't shake. As you can imagine, the grind of encountering, checking a color, and running is mind-numbingly boring. Enter dissertation writing and break discipline.

The end of a PhD is grueling. There is so much content to stitch together, narratives to build, and good old fashioned writing and citing. I found I was burning out at irregular paces because I was doing long work sessions without breaks. When I was taking a break, I needed a mindless activity to reset my mind before diving back in. This is where the shiny pokemon hunting became very useful. As such, I'd have a timer for my pomodoro sessions, and a tracker for the number of pokemon I encountered.

I threw in a synthesized "bell" that let me know in regular increments when to break. Having all of this tracking in a single spot accessible from anywhere made it convienient and perfectly catered to my needs. I exhausted myself less often, and yes, caught a shiny Chandelure.