If you’re anything like me, you probably have a category of thoughts that go around in your head filed under something like “Things I need to do but don’t really want to, so I keep putting them off,” or “Things I should be doing, but aren’t urgent so I don’t make time for them.” Activities that fall under these categories can include:
- New habits
- Becoming more consistent with certain aspects of our creative work (making, marketing, planning, etc.)
- Learning new skills
- Making a push for progress towards a specific goal
- Finishing the last 10% of a project
…and more.
Today, I want to talk about an effective, even fun (!), trick that can help you make meaningful progress towards all of the above: the 30-day challenge.
A 30-day challenge is a great way to make time for the “important but not urgent” things you are struggling to make time to do. It’s an opportunity to focus on learning new techniques, to face your fears, to tackle sticky projects, and more.
30-day challenges are especially effective because they have a nice container around them: a calendar month. 30 days is long enough to get over initial hurdles and make meaningful progress, but not so long you end up hating the process and quitting prematurely. It’s a month… but it’s only a month.
30+ Examples of 30-Day Challenges
I keep a running list of ideas in my journal that sound fun and/or useful to me, which acts like a kind of menu when I’m ready for a new challenge. Once you get into the swing of thinking about ideas for 30-day challenges, you realise the possibilities are endless! If you need a bit of inspiration to get started, here are 30+ ideas you could use for your own 30-day challenges:
Art
- Daily sketch: Create a new sketch or drawing every day.
- Photography: Take and share one photo each day.
- Hand lettering: Create a new hand-lettering piece each day.
- Doodling: Doodle something new each day (if you need extra inspiration, you can find plenty of tutorials online)
- Abstract art: Create daily abstract artworks using different techniques.
- Color palette challenge: Create a piece of artwork using a specific color palette each day.
- Art journaling: Practise expressing your thoughts and ideas through creating a new art journaling spread each day.
Writing
- Short story: Write and complete a short story every day.
- Character profile: Create a new character profile (description, background, motivations, etc.) each day.
- Creative writing prompts: Respond to a daily writing prompt.
- Daily Blogging: Write and publish a short blog post each day.
- Book ideas: Outline one idea for a potential book each day.
Other creative areas
- Music composition: Compose a short piece of music each day.
- Jewellery making: Make a small piece of jewellery each day.
- Motif design: Design a new motif for fibre arts (knitting, crochet, etc.) patterns each day
- Jewellery making: Make a small piece of jewellery each day.
- Comic strip: Develop a short comic strip each day.
- Crafting: Create a new craft or DIY project every day.
Creative Business
- Social media: Increase social media presence by engaging with followers daily.
- Content creation: Develop and share valuable content related to your business each day.
- Testimonials: Reach out to one previous customer for a testimonial or quote each day.
- Networking: Connect with a colleague, peer, or potential client daily.
- Market research: Research a specific aspect of your creative business each day.
- Collaboration: Reach out to one potential collaborator each day.
- Customer appreciation: Reach out to one previous customer each day to express your appreciation.
- Website sprucing: Do 30 daily small tasks to spruce up your website and/or storefront.
- Product ideas: Come up with one idea for a new product or service each day.
For fun/miscellaneous
- Language learning: Spend 10 minutes practising a new language each day.
- 10 ideas: Come up with 10 ideas around different topics each day (hat tip to Claudia Azula Altucher for this idea).
- Reach out: Reach out to a friend or acquaintance to say hi. Bonus points if it’s someone you haven’t connected with for a while!
Health & Wellbeing
- 10,000 steps: Walk 10,000 steps each day (or as close to 10,000 as you can get).
- Yoga: Complete 30 days of yoga practice.
- Meditation: Meditate for 10 minutes each day.
- Morning pages: Try writing 750 words (a la Julia Cameron) for 30 days in a row and see what happens 🙂
Do you think you’ll try a 30-day challenge? If so, what would you choose to focus on? Leave a comment and share your ideas.
Photo by Nik and Sen on Unsplash
