Challenges
75 Soft challenge
The 75 Soft challenge is a set of four rules that you follow every day for 75 days: eat well, exercise for 45 minutes, drink three liters of water, and read ten pages of a book. It is an easier version of the 75 Hard program.
Last updated
Reviewed by Mohammed Raqeeb
The rules
What are the 75 Soft challenge rules?
The 75 Soft challenge rules are below, with what each one asks for on each of the 75 days.
- Eat well. Drink alcohol only on social occasions. The rule does not say what “eat well” means, so you decide that for yourself before day one.
- Exercise. Do 45 minutes every day. One day each week is for active recovery: something easy, like a slow walk or a swim.
- Drink water. Three liters a day.
- Read. Ten pages of a book. Any book counts.
If you miss a day of the 75 Soft challenge, you do not have to start again.
If you have a health condition, ask a doctor before you start an exercise plan. This page does not tell you what to eat or drink.
The time it takes
How much time does the 75 Soft challenge take each day?
The 75 Soft challenge takes about 65 minutes a day. The exercise is 45 minutes. The ten pages are not timed, so this page counts 20 minutes for them.
Over 75 days, that comes to about 81 hours, a little more than two working weeks.
| Rule | Each day | Over 75 days |
|---|---|---|
| Exercise | 45 minutes | 56h 15m |
| Reading | Ten pages, about 20 minutes | 750 pages, 25h |
| Water | Three liters | 225 liters |
| Exercise and reading together | 65 minutes | 81h 15m |
Try it
75 Soft challenge tracker: tick your 75 days
The grid below has one square for each of the 75 days. Pick the day you start. Then tick a day when you have kept all four rules.
Where you are
75 days, a week to a row
Pick a start day to see the date of your last day.
- Days ticked
- 0
- Exercise
- 0h
- Pages read
- 0
Tick each day you kept all the rules
done today
Press a day to tick it. Press it again to untick it.
Your start day and your ticks are saved in this browser, so they are here when you come back. Nothing you enter leaves this page.
Soft and hard
75 Soft vs 75 Hard: what is the difference?
The 75 Soft challenge asks for less each day than 75 Hard, and lets you carry on after a missed day. 75 Hard is a program by Andy Frisella, a motivational speaker and entrepreneur, who started it in 2019 (an article by Cleveland Clinic). On his own page, he calls it a program for mental toughness, and says it is not a fitness challenge.
Most reports say the 75 Soft challenge was started by Stephen Gallagher, a fitness influencer in Ireland, who posted the rules on TikTok in 2021 (a report by the NBC show Today). His account is no longer online, so the 75 Soft rules on this page come from news reports.
The table has the 75 Hard rules in our own words.
| Rule | 75 Soft | 75 Hard |
|---|---|---|
| Exercise | 45 minutes a day, with one easy day a week | Two workouts a day of 45 minutes each, one of them outdoors |
| Food | Eat well. You decide what that means | Choose an eating plan and keep to it every day |
| Alcohol | Only on social occasions | None |
| Water | Three liters a day | One gallon a day, which is a little under four liters |
| Reading | Ten pages of any book | Ten pages of a nonfiction book |
| Photo | None | A photo of yourself every day |
| A missed day | Carry on the next day | Start again from day one |
| Exercise over all the days | 56h 15m | 112h 30m |
| Started by | Stephen Gallagher, 2021 | Andy Frisella, 2019 |
How to do it
How to start the 75 Soft challenge
You start the 75 Soft challenge by deciding five small things before day one.
Pick your first day.
Any day works: a Monday, the first day of a month, or January 1 as a New Year’s resolution.
Write down your own food rule.
Write one sentence that says what “eat well” means for you. Then you know each night whether you kept it.
Give the exercise and the reading a fixed time.
Choose when the 45 minutes happen, such as before work or straight after it. Put the book where you will see it, like on your pillow. That is how a habit forms.
Start smaller if you need to.
If 45 minutes is too much at first, do a shorter session and build up, or split it into three short walks. Today’s report suggests both.
Know what you do after a missed day.
No rule sends you back to day one, so leave that day unticked and do the next day. In one study, people practiced one new habit every day for twelve weeks, and missing a single day made no real difference to how the habit formed (Lally and colleagues, 2010).
The test
How do you know the 75 Soft challenge is working?
The test
You did the 45 minutes and the ten pages on at least six days
in each of the last four weeks.
A tick on a grid shows that you kept a day. It does not show how long you really exercised, or where the rest of the day went.
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. Most journaling apps only ask how your day felt. They do not add up your exercise 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 exercise, 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 you really exercised and read each week. Add your workout and your ten pages as daily habits, with a reminder if you want one. The app ticks them off when what you write about your day shows you did them. Water and food stay on your grid.
1. You write your day
2. It counts the hours
- Workout0m
- Work0m
- Sleep0m
- Unaccounted24h
3. It shows your week
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.
- Today (read ). What is the 75 Soft Challenge? How to do the gentler version of 75 Hard.
- 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?
- 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.
Keep reading.
- LearnAnswers about sleep, habits, study, people and work, in hours.
- New Year’s resolutionsEight resolution ideas that say what to do and for how long, the most common resolutions from a YouGov poll, and four steps to keep yours.
- Self-disciplineHow to build it, why disciplined people arrange their day instead of resisting, and a weekly count of hours kept against hours promised.
- 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.
- 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 the 75 Soft challenge?
The 75 Soft challenge is a set of four rules that you follow every day for 75 days: eat well, exercise for 45 minutes, drink three liters of water, and read ten pages of a book. It is an easier version of the 75 Hard program.
What is the difference between 75 Soft and 75 Hard?
75 Soft asks for one 45-minute session of exercise a day, and 75 Hard asks for two. 75 Hard also asks for no alcohol, a gallon of water and a photo of yourself every day. If you miss a day of 75 Hard you start again from day one. With 75 Soft you carry on.
Who started the 75 Soft challenge?
Most reports say the 75 Soft challenge was started by Stephen Gallagher, a fitness influencer in Ireland, who posted the rules on TikTok in 2021. The 75 Hard program that it is based on was started by Andy Frisella in 2019.
What happens if you miss a day of 75 Soft?
Nothing happens. The 75 Soft challenge has no rule that sends you back to day one. Leave that day unticked and do the next day.
What app can I use to track the 75 Soft challenge?
A wall calendar works: tick each day you kept the four rules. If you want an app to count the time, look for one that adds up your exercise 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 workout and your reading, and shows them week by week. It can also keep your workout and your reading as daily habits and tick them off from what you write. It does not count water, food or pages.
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.