Challenges
75 Hard challenge
The 75 Hard challenge is five tasks that you do every day for 75 days: follow a diet with no alcohol, do two 45-minute workouts, drink a gallon of water, read ten pages of a nonfiction book, and take a photo of yourself. If you miss one task, you start again from day one.
Last updated
Reviewed by Mohammed Raqeeb
The rules
What are the 75 Hard rules?
The 75 Hard rules are the five tasks below. You do all five on every one of the 75 days, with no day off. They come from Andy Frisella, who made the program.
- Follow a diet. You choose the diet. Whatever you choose, there is no alcohol and no “cheat meal”, which means a meal that is not on your diet.
- Do two workouts. Each one is at least 45 minutes, and one of the two is outdoors. You choose what the workouts are. He says that two walks count.
- Drink a gallon of water. Plain water, with nothing added. A gallon is a little under four liters.
- Read ten pages. The book is nonfiction, and you read it yourself. An audiobook does not count.
- Take a photo of yourself. One photo every day. He calls it a progress photo.
If you miss any task on any day, you start again from day one. You also cannot swap a task for a different one.
75 Hard is free. Frisella started it in 2019 (Cleveland Clinic). The rules above are from his own list of the tasks, written here in our own words.
Frisella’s page for the program says to ask your doctor before you start, and not to start if your doctor advises against it. Nothing on this page is advice about food, drink or exercise.
The hours
How many hours a day does 75 Hard take?
75 Hard takes about 1h 50m a day. The two workouts are 1h 30m together. The ten pages are not timed, so this page counts 20 minutes for them. The water, the diet and the photo take almost no time of their own.
The workouts cannot be done as one long session. Frisella’s page of tips says they are two separate workouts, at least three hours apart. So a day of 75 Hard has two blocks of exercise in it, for example 6:30 AM to 7:15 AM before work and 6:00 PM to 6:45 PM after it.
Over 75 days, the workouts and the reading come to about 137h 30m. That is about as long as three and a half full-time working weeks.
| Task | Each day | Over 75 days |
|---|---|---|
| Two workouts | 1h 30m | 150 workouts, 112h 30m |
| Reading | Ten pages, about 20 minutes | 750 pages, 25h |
| Workouts and reading together | 1h 50m | 137h 30m |
Try it
75 Hard tracker: your five tasks and your 75 days
The tracker below has today’s five tasks and one circle for each of the 75 days. Pick your day one. Then tick each task as you do it.
Where you are
75 days, five tasks a day
Pick your day one to see the date of your last day.
Your days, a week to a row
done today
Press a day to tick or untick it.
- Days done
- 0
- Workouts
- 0h
- Pages read
- 0
- Restarts
- 0
Missed a task?
By the program’s rule, you go back to day one. The button clears the grid, makes today day one and adds one to your restarts.
This grid is kept in your browser on this device: your day one, your ticks and your restarts. “Clear everything” removes them. Nothing you enter leaves this page.
A missed day
What happens if you miss a day of 75 Hard?
If you miss a day of 75 Hard, or one task on one day, you start again from day one. The days you already did do not carry over.
Say you miss a task on day 40. The next day is day one again. If you then keep every day, you finish 115 days after you first began.
The 75 Soft challenge has no such rule.
Hard and soft
75 Hard vs 75 Soft: how are they different?
75 Hard asks for about 1h 50m of exercise and reading a day, and 75 Soft asks for about 1h 5m. 75 Soft is a looser version that spread on TikTok (a report by the NBC show Today).
The table shows where the time differs. 75 Soft also asks for less on food, alcohol, water and the book, and it has no daily photo. The 75 Soft page has every rule side by side.
| What | 75 Hard | 75 Soft |
|---|---|---|
| Workouts a day | Two, each 45 minutes or more, one outdoors | One, 45 minutes |
| Days off from exercise | None | One easy day each week |
| After a missed day | Back to day one | You keep going |
| Exercise and reading a day | 1h 50m | 1h 5m |
| Exercise and reading over 75 days | 137h 30m | 81h 15m |
How to do it
How to plan a day of 75 Hard
A day of 75 Hard is easier to keep when you settle two things before day one.
Find the two blocks of time.
Mark where the two 45-minute workouts can go on a weekday and on a weekend day, three hours or more apart, with one of them outdoors.
Write your diet down.
The rule does not say which diet. Write yours in a sentence or two, so that each night you know if you kept it. Frisella’s tips say that you can ask a nutrition professional if you are not sure what to pick.
The test
How do you know you kept the 75 Hard rules?
The test
You did both 45-minute workouts, three hours or more apart, and your ten pages
on each of the last seven days.
A tick shows that a day is done. It does not show when your two workouts really happened, or how long they took out of the day.
A good way to check is to count the hours from what you write or say about your day. Then there is no timer to start for each workout. Most journaling apps only ask how your day felt. They do not add up your workouts and your reading for the week.
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 two workouts, your reading, sleep, work, 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 many hours your workouts and your reading really took each week. Add the two workouts and the ten pages as daily habits. When what you write about your day shows you did them, the app ticks them off and your streak goes on. Water, food and the photo stay on your grid.
1. You write your day
2. It counts the hours
- Outdoor workout0m
- Work0m
- Sleep0m
- Unaccounted24h
3. It shows your week
Outdoor workout 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 rules and the numbers come from.
Every rule and number on this page links to one of the sources below. We read each one for this page.
- Andy Frisella’s website (read ). 75 HARD Program PDF & Tasks.
- Andy Frisella’s website (read ). 75 HARD Tips.
- Andy Frisella’s website (read ). 75 Hard: A Tactical Guide to Winning the War with Yourself.
- Cleveland Clinic (read ). The 75 Hard Challenge: Is It Good or Bad?
- Today (read ). What is the 75 Soft Challenge? How to do the gentler version of 75 Hard.
Keep reading.
- LearnAnswers about sleep, habits, study, people and work, in hours.
- 75 Soft challengeThe four rules, the time they take each day, how 75 Soft differs from 75 Hard, and a grid to tick.
- 30 day challengeTwenty ideas with a time on each, what 30 days of them add up to, and a tracker with a box for each day.
- Self-disciplineHow to build it, why disciplined people arrange their day instead of resisting, and a weekly count of hours kept against hours promised.
- 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 are the 75 Hard rules?
The 75 Hard rules are five tasks that you do every day for 75 days. Follow a diet with no alcohol. Do two 45-minute workouts, one of them outdoors. Drink a gallon of water. Read ten pages of a nonfiction book. Take a photo of yourself. If you miss a task, you start again from day one.
How long does 75 Hard take each day?
75 Hard takes about 1h 50m a day. The two workouts are 1h 30m together, and this page counts 20 minutes for the ten pages. Over 75 days that is about 137h 30m.
What happens if you miss a day of 75 Hard?
You start again from day one. Andy Frisella’s page says so, and it also says that no task can be swapped for another.
Who started the 75 Hard challenge?
75 Hard was started by Andy Frisella, an entrepreneur and motivational speaker. An article by Cleveland Clinic says the program began in 2019. The program is free.
What app can I use to track 75 Hard?
A paper calendar works: cross off each day when all five tasks are done. If you want an app to count the time, look for one that adds up your workouts and your reading 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 hours from what you write or say about your day, such as your two workouts and your reading, and shows them week by week. The two workouts and the reading can be daily habits too, ticked off from what you write about your day. It does not count water, food or photos.
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.