Night before — the poolish. Mix 200g flour, 200g water, and a pinch (1/4 tsp) of instant yeast. Cover and leave at room temp 8 to 14 hours, until domed and bubbly.
Mix the dough. To the poolish add the remaining 800g flour, 450g water (65% hydration), 12g instant yeast, 20g salt, and the optional 20g oil. Knead to a smooth, elastic dough.
Bulk rise about 1.5 hours at room temp, with a fold at the 45-minute mark, until very puffy.
Divide into roughly 110 to 130g pieces and shape into 4.5 to 5 inch cylinders, flattened slightly so they dome rather than peak.
Bake what you want now; stash the rest. To bake now: proof the shaped rolls 45 to 60 minutes until puffy. To stash: refrigerate the shaped rolls (or keep the dough undivided) and bake over the next 1 to 2 days, straight from cold after a short warm-up.
Heat the oven to 400F. Brush the rolls with egg-white wash and slash if you like the shine and crackle. Bake 20 to 25 minutes, to 190F internal.
Cool on a rack — rolls are ready to eat in about 25 minutes.
The cold-dough stash is the whole idea: one mix, fresh rolls over a few days, never a wasted batch. A lean dough holds about 1 to 3 days in the fridge — it gains flavor, then eventually over-ferments and goes slack, so bake within a couple of days.
Timing patterns: an evening poolish lets you bake mid-morning for a sandwich before you head out; or shape in the evening, retard overnight, and bake straight from the fridge with almost no morning work.
You can bake part of the dough as a loaf (about 900g in a greased 9x5, 35 to 40 minutes to roughly 200F) for same-day toast — but for sliced bread that keeps several days, bake the enriched Potato Sandwich Loaf instead. Freezing is a salvage move only: if you won't get to the stash in time, freeze the raw dough rather than let it go to waste.