Always late to the game: where to find online challenges on time?

July 7, 2018 3:19 AM

I find it very motivating to work on a challenge or project alongside an online community. Unfortunately, I often only read about these challenges once they are almost over. Good examples are the Apartment Therapy January Cure or the #the100dayproject featured on Instagram. What challenges do you know of that are upcoming? What challenges are reoccurring every year, so I could participate the next time around? Are there any websites that have a great overview of upcoming challenges?

Whether it be a fitness challenge, decluttering, a creative project or self-improvement, all is interesting to me. The only criteria is that
- it is a somewhat focused objective
- to be achieved in a defined timeframe and
- there is an exchange of ideas and results among participants on some kind of online platform (preferably a website, blog or Instagram)
- and it is (almost) free to participate

posted by Fallbala to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (15 answers total)

Best answer: Im not sure if you like writing but NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) is every November and the challenge is to write a 50,000 word novel in one month. There are plenty of websites and forums where you can discuss progress and exchange ideas.
posted by matthew.alexander at 4:47 AM on July 7, 2018 [3 favorites]

Well you’re a few days in but there’s Dry July, which is no alcohol for the whole month, and some people choose to raise money for charity at the same time.
posted by Jubey at 4:56 AM on July 7, 2018 [1 favorite]

I should add, there is also Movember, funnily enough, held in November. Grow a moustache (or whatever you can manage in that region) and again, raise money for men’s charity.
posted by Jubey at 4:59 AM on July 7, 2018 [1 favorite]

Best answer: For drawing there's inktober, Every Day in May, and 365 Drawings and The Sketchbook Project. These groups have instagram, facebook and flickr components as well, so you could either go to the websites or join in one or all of the communities.
posted by coevals at 5:31 AM on July 7, 2018 [4 favorites]

Best answer: Sharon Salzberg leads a 28 day Meditation Challenge each February.
posted by gennessee at 5:50 AM on July 7, 2018

Camp NanoWriMo is in July; you’re only a few days behind and might catch up with a good weekend!
posted by Nancy_LockIsLit_Palmer at 5:52 AM on July 7, 2018 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Apartment Therapy also has weekend projects throughout the year too! I like that you can receive them via email as well (although I tend to visit the website most days looking for inspo).
posted by Mouse Army at 6:37 AM on July 7, 2018 [1 favorite]

30 days of biking is in April. We hashtag on twitter and Instagram, and there’s a Facebook group, the Joyful Riders Club.
posted by advicepig at 7:12 AM on July 7, 2018 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Honestly, I think your best approach is to periodically search “[x] challenge” or “30-day challenge” on Google and date limit the results to posts made in the past week. Someone’s always running one of these challenges. That being said, here are two challenges I’m aware of:

Going off Movember, Dressember is a fundraiser where folks of any gender commit to wearing a dress or bow tie (or another item that jives with their gender identity) for a month and raise money to combat sex trafficking. Some folks choose to wear only one dress all month and figure out 30 different ways to style it. Depending on your gender identity and your interest in fashion, can be fun, and it definitely has a huge community around it.

Zen Habits is kicking off a decluttering challenge TODAY. More info.
posted by suncages at 7:47 AM on July 7, 2018 [3 favorites]

Best answer: Ugh, didn’t realize that the Zen Habits challenge cost money. That’s what I get for not clicking through the signup flow. Here are a couple others to make up for it:

An interior design blog is about halfway through a five-week declutter challenge right now.

Last January, Cal Newport ran a digital declutter challenge through his newsletter. I think he’ll probably do it again this January. Here’s a random person’s blog about the experience. I participated in this and loved it. It purposefully does NOT involve the exchange of ideas amongst participants—the goal is less social media interaction and more IRL interaction—but it otherwise checks your boxes. For me, it was the best challenge I’ve ever done; I quit Facebook on January 31 because I realized I didn’t miss it.
posted by suncages at 8:03 AM on July 7, 2018 [1 favorite]

The Tour de Fleece begins today on Ravelry. It's a spinning event that runs concurrently with the Tour de France.
posted by fancyoats at 8:12 AM on July 7, 2018

Best answer: Yoga with Adrienne on YouTube has a 30 day challenge in January, but her videos are up all year around.
posted by ellerhodes at 9:21 AM on July 7, 2018

Best answer: Veganuary
posted by driedmango at 11:17 AM on July 7, 2018 [1 favorite]

Best answer: March is "Let's All Make Our Beds" month, where "Clean Person" Jolie Kerr encourages non-bed makers to try making their bed every day for the whole month. The Twitter hashtag is #LAMOB
posted by radioamy at 12:37 PM on July 7, 2018

There are lots of Photo 365 projects, usually starting on January 1st. Some are themed or have everyone participating shoot the same subject/topic and others are free form. The free form ones can basically start at any time. This reddit group is pretty dead at the moment but it has some links to structured challenges.
posted by Mitheral at 1:46 AM on July 8, 2018 [1 favorite]