A 100 day challenge is one small action you repeat every day for 100 days. Good 100 day challenge ideas are specific, take under 30 minutes, and leave something visible behind, like a stack of sketches, a savings balance or a list of books.
Below are ideas grouped by area, followed by how to choose one and how to get through the middle stretch, which is where most people stop.
Fitness and movement
- Walk for 20 minutes every day.
- Do one set of push-ups, any number, and write the number down.
- Stretch for 10 minutes before bed.
- Take the stairs every time you have the choice.
- Do a short yoga video each morning.
- Go outside before you look at your phone.
Money
- Move a small fixed amount into savings every day.
- Write down every purchase you make.
- Bring lunch from home on work days.
- Sell or give away one thing you do not use.
- Have one no-spend day a week and log the other days honestly.
Creativity
- Draw one small sketch a day. Day 100 next to day 1 is a great thing to see.
- Take one photo a day with a theme for each week.
- Write 200 words a day toward a story.
- Learn one short piece of a song on an instrument.
- Make one thing with your hands each week and practice a skill for it daily.
Learning
- Study a language for 15 minutes.
- Read 10 pages of a book.
- Learn one new word and use it in a sentence.
- Do one coding exercise.
- Watch one lecture or tutorial and write a two line summary.
Calm and wellbeing
- Meditate for 5 minutes.
- Write three lines in a journal.
- Turn off screens 30 minutes before bed.
- Drink a glass of water when you wake up.
- Send one kind message to someone.
- Tidy one small area of your home.
How to pick the right one
A hundred days is a little over three months. That is long enough to change something, and long enough for a too-ambitious plan to fall apart. A few questions help.
- Could you do it on your worst day? If the answer is no, shrink it. Ten pages beats an hour of reading you skip.
- Is it clear when you are done? "Exercise more" has no finish line. "Walk 20 minutes" does.
- Does it build toward something you want? The challenge is the daily action. The reason is what you will have at the end. Keep both in mind.
If 100 days feels like a lot, start with a shorter run first. Our 30 day challenge ideas make a good warm up, and many of them stretch to 100 days with no changes.
Getting through days 30 to 70
The start is exciting and the finish is in sight near the end. The middle is where the novelty is gone and the goal still feels far away. Plan for it.
- Mark day 50 as a small event. Look back at what you have done.
- Keep the action the same, and change something small around it, like a new walking route.
- Make progress visible. A grid on paper, a jar of marbles or a photo that slowly appears all work.
- Do it at the same time each day, attached to something you already do.
When you miss a day
You probably will. Illness, travel and bad weeks happen across three months. A missed day is one day out of a hundred. Pick up again the next day. Ninety-five days out of a hundred is a very good result, and a tracker that wipes your count to zero is giving you bad information. There is more on this in what to do when you miss a day.
Pairing ideas into a theme
Some people like a challenge with a bigger story behind it. You can group one daily action with a goal you care about. A daily walk can build toward a charity hike in the spring. Ten pages a day can build toward finishing a reading list before the end of the year. A daily sketch can build toward a small exhibition for friends. The action stays small and the reason stays big.
Keep it to one challenge at a time if this is your first. Two or three at once can work later, once a single one feels easy. Write the start date somewhere you will see it, and put day 100 on your calendar as something to celebrate.
Make the result visible
Save the evidence as you go. Keep every sketch in one folder. Photograph your bookshelf at the start and the end. Screenshot your savings balance on day one. On day 100 you will have something to look at, and that picture is often the thing that convinces you to start the next challenge.
Tracking a 100 day challenge in Reveal the Dream
Reveal the Dream turns a challenge into a photo that uncovers itself. You pick a picture of what the challenge is for, and a frosted cover over it is split into one region per day. Each check-in uncovers one region, in the app and on a home screen widget. A missed day stays covered, and nothing resets.
Classic offers 7 or 30 day journeys, which is a good way to try a shorter run first. A 100 day journey needs a custom length, which is part of Premium, along with rest days, so you can choose which weekdays count, and repeating journeys that start the next round on their own.
Start small and start today
Pick one idea from this page. Make it smaller than feels impressive. Write down why you are doing it, find a picture of the result, and do day one before you go to bed tonight.