Challenges
30 day challenge
A 30 day challenge is one small thing that you do every day for 30 days, like walking for twenty minutes or reading for ten. Pick one from the list below. Each idea has a time on it, so you can see what the 30 days add up to.
Last updated
Reviewed by Mohammed Raqeeb
The ideas
30 day challenge ideas
30 day challenge ideas are easier to keep when each one has a time on it. Here are twenty to pick from, in four groups. The last column shows what the minutes come to if you do them on all 30 days.
| Idea | Each day | Over 30 days |
|---|---|---|
| Move | ||
| Walk outside | 20 minutes | 10h |
| Stretch when you get up | 10 minutes | 5h |
| Do a workout at home | 20 minutes | 10h |
| Run or jog | 15 minutes | 7h 30m |
| Ride a bike | 30 minutes | 15h |
| Learn | ||
| Read a book | 20 minutes | 10h |
| Practice a language | 15 minutes | 7h 30m |
| Practice an instrument | 20 minutes | 10h |
| Learn to code | 30 minutes | 15h |
| Do one lesson of an online course | 30 minutes | 15h |
| Make | ||
| Write a page of anything | 15 minutes | 7h 30m |
| Draw one thing you can see | 10 minutes | 5h |
| Take photos on a short walk | 10 minutes | 5h |
| Cook a meal from scratch | 30 minutes | 15h |
| Write down what you did today | 10 minutes | 5h |
| Home and life | ||
| Tidy one small area | 10 minutes | 5h |
| Plan tomorrow before bed | 5 minutes | 2h 30m |
| Call or message someone you miss | 10 minutes | 5h |
| Sit quietly with no phone | 10 minutes | 5h |
| Write down what you spent today | 5 minutes | 2h 30m |
You can change the minutes. If you have a health condition, ask a doctor before you start a new exercise plan.
How to pick
How to pick a 30 day challenge
Pick a 30 day challenge in three small steps.
Pick one thing.
One challenge at a time is enough. Then there is one box to tick each day.
Put a time on it.
“Get fit” cannot be ticked, because you never know if you did it. “Walk for twenty minutes” can. At the end of the day, you either walked for twenty minutes or you did not.
Pick your first day, and when in the day.
Any day can be day one. Then choose when in the day you will do it, so that you do not have to find a time each day.
The list of good habits has steps for making a small thing easy to keep up. Habit stacking shows how to tie it to something you already do.
Try it
30 day challenge tracker: your minutes and your 30 boxes
The tracker below does the sum for your own challenge. Type what you will do and choose the minutes a day. Then tick a box on each day you do it.
What it adds up to
7h 30m
From 15m a day for 30 days. Ticked so far: 0h on 0 days.
30 days, one box a day
done today
Press a box to tick or untick it.
Your challenge and your ticks are kept in this browser, on this device. “Clear everything” removes them. Nothing you enter leaves this page.
The sum
What does 30 days of a challenge add up to?
30 days of a challenge add up to more than you might think. Ten minutes a day comes to five hours. Half an hour a day comes to fifteen hours, which is nearly two full working days.
The table shows the same sum for other amounts and for longer. The page on the power of consistency has more.
| Each day | 30 days | 100 days | 365 days |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5 minutes | 2h 30m | 8h 20m | 30h 25m |
| 10 minutes | 5h | 16h 40m | 60h 50m |
| 15 minutes | 7h 30m | 25h | 91h 15m |
| 30 minutes | 15h | 50h | 182h 30m |
| 60 minutes | 30h | 100h | 365h |
After day 30
Is 30 days enough to build a habit?
30 days is enough to start a habit. For most people it is not enough for the habit to feel automatic, so do not worry if your challenge still takes effort on the last day.
In one study, people chose one new thing to do every day, such as drinking a bottle of water with lunch. Each day they reported how automatic it felt. For the person in the middle of the group, it took 66 days to feel automatic. The quickest person took 18 days and the slowest 254 (Lally and colleagues, 2010).
The same study found that missing one day made no real difference. So if you miss a day, leave the box empty and do the next day. The page on how long it takes to form a habit has the rest.
A longer one
What is a 100 day challenge?
A 100 day challenge is the same idea over 100 days: one thing, done every day. Ten minutes a day for 100 days comes to 16h 40m. Two well-known ones have rules of their own.
The 100 Day Project is for making things. You choose a creative project, like drawing or writing, and do it every day for 100 days. It began as an assignment that the designer Michael Bierut gave his students at Yale, and it moved to Instagram in 2014. Its own advice is to pick something you can do in five to ten minutes a day.
100DaysOfCode is for people who are learning to program. Its main rule is to code for at least an hour every day. Over 100 days that is 100h.
The tracker on this page can switch from 30 days to 100.
The test
How do you know your 30 day challenge is working?
The test
On the days you ticked, you really did the minutes you planned
in each of the four weeks.
A ticked box shows that you did something that day. It does not show how long you did it for, and a short day and a full day get the same tick.
A good way to check is to count the minutes from what you write or say about your day. Then there is no timer to start, and nothing to add up by hand. Most journaling apps only ask how your day felt. They do not show how many minutes your challenge really got each day.
One app built for this is Think in Numbers, a smart journaling app with time tracking built in.
You write or say your day in your own words, as it happens or all at once. The app reads what you wrote and counts the hours that went to each part of it: your challenge, work, sleep, your phone, and the time you never mentioned (shown as unaccounted). Then it shows those hours over days and weeks. So you can see how long your challenge really took on each of the 30 days, and what the days add up to. Add the challenge as a daily habit with its minutes, such as 20 minutes of guitar. It is ticked off on the days the hours you wrote reach them.
1. You write your day
2. It counts the hours
- Guitar0m
- Work0m
- Sleep0m
- Unaccounted24h
3. It shows your week
Guitar this week: 0m
On 6 of 7 days. The gap is the day without it.
An example day and week.
For iPhone and Android. Try it on your own day before you pay.
Sources
Where the findings and the names come from.
Every finding and name on this page links to one of the sources below. We read each one for this page.
- Lally, P., van Jaarsveld, C. H. M., Potts, H. W. W. and Wardle, J. (2010). How are habits formed: Modelling habit formation in the real world. European Journal of Social Psychology, 40(6), 998 to 1009.
- The 100 Day Project (read ). About The 100 Day Project.
- 100DaysOfCode (read ). #100DaysOfCode: the official website for the challenge.
Keep reading.
- LearnAnswers about sleep, habits, study, people and work, in hours.
- 75 Hard challengeThe five rules, the hours they take each day, what a missed day costs, and a 75-day tracker with today’s five tasks.
- The power of consistencyWhy thirty minutes a day for a year beats one long session, what it does in your brain, and how to stay consistent.
- How long to form a habit66 days on average, and how to tell when yours has formed.
- Where did my week go? calculatorEnter a typical day and see your week accounted and unaccounted.
- Time journalingThe method: write or say your day in your own words, then see it as hours.
Questions
Questions people ask.
What is a 30 day challenge?
A 30 day challenge is one small thing that you do every day for 30 days, such as walking for twenty minutes. It is short enough to finish, and long enough to see what the minutes add up to.
What are some good 30 day challenge ideas?
Good 30 day challenge ideas have a time on them. Walk for twenty minutes. Read for twenty. Practice a language for fifteen. Write for fifteen. Tidy for ten.
Is 30 days enough to build a habit?
For most people, 30 days is a start and not the finish. In one study, the person in the middle of the group needed 66 days before a new daily habit felt automatic. The quickest person needed 18 days and the slowest 254.
What if I miss a day of a 30 day challenge?
Leave that box empty and do the next day. A 30 day challenge has no rule that sends you back to the start. In one study of new daily habits, missing a single day made no real difference.
How do I keep track of a 30 day challenge?
A sheet of paper with thirty boxes works: tick one box each day. If you also want to know how long you really spent, look for an app that counts the minutes from what you write about your day. One app built for this is Think in Numbers, a smart journaling app with time tracking built in. Think in Numbers counts the time from what you write or say about your day, such as your walk or your guitar practice, and shows it day by day and week by week. You can also add the challenge as a habit, and it is ticked off from what you write about your day.
Try it on my day.
Write today down in your own words, and see where the hours went.
For iPhone and Android. Try it on your own day before you pay.