How our 30-Day Challenge helped us build habits

"I wanted to start this habit but I'm having a hard time starting it."

Most of us have said that at some point. We care about getting better as a team, so some Symphers organized the 30-Day Challenge to help each other work on the habits we're building and have some fun doing it.

The challenges range from learning something new to changing how we live. Anyone can join a challenge or create one for others to join. We set up a point system and a leaderboard, and at the end of every month the organizers give rewards to the top challengers and authors.

Why 30 days

"We think it's the perfect amount of time to do a self-improvement challenge. It's long enough to make something part of our daily routine and short enough that it will not overwhelm us!" - Leigh Lapura, 30-Day Challenge founder

How it works

Everyone submits their entries in our Discord channel. To record an entry you type in a prompt, and once you send it you get a point.

Here are some of the entries.

Daily UI Challenge

Daily Illustration Challenge

2-minute Daily Speech

Creative Writing Daily Challenge

We asked some of the participants and organizers what they thought of it.

"While discipline might be a hard pill to swallow, it was a bit easier with the 30 Days Challenge. Being able to partake in it makes me excited to look forward to achieving my personal and professional goals one day at a time." - Jeanille Abayon, full stack developer intern and 30-Day Challenge participant

"It was a rewarding experience seeing other Symphers take on the 30 day challenge and see how they tackle the different challenges we had in store for them." - Tony de la Cruz, full stack developer and 30-Day Challenge organizer.

"It feels fulfilling whenever someone does the challenge I created and is having fun at the same time with the small activities I prepared. As for the 30-day challenge itself, it was also fulfilling to see the active Symphers and Symphers doing the challenge and making it part of their lives." - Rache T., full stack developer and 30-Day Challenge organizer.

"I feel proud of how our challenge came to be. People are willing to start a habit through this activity and seeing them do it made me happier. The challenges are good enough to keep themselves better." - Ace Cerio, full stack developer and 30-Day Challenge organizer.

What's next for the 30-Day Challenge

We started with Notion for the list of challenges and a Discord automation to track everyone's daily entries. Now we're building an app for it, where participants will be able to challenge friends, claim rewards directly in the app, and more.

Here is a preview of the app in progress:

The challenges got us working on parts of ourselves at our own pace, and we had fun doing it. Between the entries and the daily progress, it has been rewarding to watch each of us grow, and the team along with us.

If you have tips on starting and building habits, we'd love to hear them in the comments.

Story by Jaiun Roa

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