I mentioned in my wrap-up of the March challenge that I’m taking a pause on these monthly endeavours, because there are only so many hours in the day. That’s part of it: I don’t know why I assumed time would just keep expanding to allow me to add hobby after hobby. But there is more to it than that… in having to pause the project, it really proves what a success it has been.

My challenge for March was to read the front page of the Financial Times website every day, and see what interested me, read through some of the articles and generally get a bit smarter. I’ve talked already about how surprised I was at the variety of content for what is originally a newspaper about financials and economies, and that continued as a pleasant surprise as the month went on.

I’ve been reading the Financial Times for about ten days now. I mean, I say reading it which sounds very grandiose but it’s more like scanning the homepage for interesting topics. There have been a couple each day, although naturally the weekend is quieter than during the week. I’ve been surprised at the variety, though, with lots of culture stuff that’s interesting, TV reviews, and even recipes! Plus all the expected economic talk as well, of course.

For a while now, I’ve had access to a digital Financial Times subscription and have I made any effort to make use of it? No, I haven’t. Mostly, I think the politics puts me off, but there’s so much the FT covers that I’ve really been missing out on some good journalism. They cover politics, sure, and particularly the financial impact of such goings on, but there’s also a lot of business talk, marketing, global events, culture and interviews with some of the biggest and most influential names. There’s a lot to dig in and get reading.

When I kicked off my February challenge of knitting, it was my intention to pop back in several times during the month and show off what I had made. I knew I wasn’t going to be producing sweaters and complicated patterns, but I thought there might be something worth shouting about.

February has arrived, and that means a fresh challenge, another chance to try something new. Actually, this isn’t something new to me but something I’ve tried my hand at a long time ago and since mostly forgotten: knitting! A lot of my previous experience was based on knitting rows and rows of just plain stitches, marvelling as the length of knitted material grew, then frogging the sort-of scarf I made and starting over again. Pretty basic.

It’s not the best start for a new year of 30-day-or-thereabouts challenges to have given up halfway through the month, is it? Actually, it wasn’t so much giving up as realising it wasn’t working. Therefore I’m refraining from using the word fail because even though I didn’t do a full month like I hoped, I learnt a lot along the way.

To kick off the new year, my first challenge is a health and fitness related one - to stick to a Les Mills challenge schedule. I was in two minds about this because, you know, the new year resolution to keep fit and change your life and be the absolute epitome of health is such a cliché and I am fully aware of that. But when I sat down and thought about it, the timing is perfect.

Wahey, we have reached a new year and there’s a fresh 365 days awaiting us. Last year was a bit of a rollercoaster on many levels, and although this is just another night turning into another day, it’s nice to have that clean slate feel of a New Year. I usually take this space to talk about what my aims and goals are for the year but for 2022 I mixed it up with a whole heap of 30 day challenges instead of twelve months concentrating on one thing. In my round up post, I already discussed how brilliant this was - not every task was a success but I learned something from them all and really enjoyed having a structure to the year. Some of those habits have stuck, as well, which is even better.

My new year goal for 2022 was to complete some 30 day challenges, try out some new things, get some habits forming, generally be industrious throughout the year. I completed 11 30 day challenges some of which have formed habits which have stuck, some of which I never want to revisit again, and some which were good but probably need another go. I think it’s been a really successful year and something I might try again in 2023. Until then, though, and having taken December off from a specific challenge, it seems like a good time to reflect on what I did achieve this year.

Thirty days of guitar completed and I’m a pro now! Just kidding, I can play some of the easier chords and attempt to play some of the other easy ones and pick the occasional note from a string. There’s a long, long way to go. One of the things I was really worried about with this challenge was that I knew how much playing guitar can take a toll on the fingertips - and playing every day might not be the wisest idea. I think I survived, although having taken two days off at the end of the challenge, my fingers are still tingly!

I had planned to do a quick update halfway through my 30 days of guitar challenge, I’m a couple of days late but let’s do it anyway. It’s really just to note down a few of the things I’ve found over the first half of the month: I was really worried about the tips of my fingers being painful and potentially prohibitive to playing every single day, but the good news is I’m trying to be quite strict on the time I play each day which helps make it more manageable. They do hurt though, don’t get me wrong. Tingly fingertips. I’ve been working through the Yousician lesson plan which is really brilliant. It’s an expensive subscription (Although they have an amazing Black Friday deal on at the mo that I’m gutted to have missed out on but is worth a look if you’re tempted!). The course is so well laid out - chords and fingerpicking, plenty of songs to play within the course or as and when you want to, and… drum roll please… certificates!!

November has arrived and with it comes the dark nights, cold weather and general feeling that hibernation would be the right choice for any sensible person. Unfortunately, that’s not really an option, so instead, it’s time to come up with another 30 day challenge to get me through the month. This time? Guitar! Hooray! This has been on the list since I first started thinking about doing many thirty day challenges, but there was a small problem - up until recently, I didn’t have access to a guitar. But now I do! It’s not super fancy or anything, but a basic acoustic guitar and a Yousician subscription should get me through the next thirty days.

I wasn’t sure how October’s 30 day challenge was going to go - learning sign language with this online course. The guidance suggests really taking your time so I didn’t want to rush through and set artificial deadlines when all I really wanted to do was explore the language. However, I was at a massive advantage being able to fingerspell already, so it became an achievable goal to get through the whole course in the month.

Last year, when Rose won Strictly, I was one of those people who had been completely intrigued by sign language and curious about learning some myself. I didn’t do anything about it at the time, and somehow an entire year has passed, but my thoughts returned to the subject when Rose popped up on this year’s launch show, and then a small amount of research later highlighted that it was International Sign Languages day on September 23rd.

My 30 days of walking has come to an end, and this was a challenge that I really enjoyed. It was nice to have the oomph to get outside every day and nice to know that it didn’t have to be a long walk… although sometimes it was. September was a pretty reasonably month for weather, so I was quite lucky. Only a couple of my outings were in full on rain, although the final walk of all 30 was in horrible wind and drizzly conditions. Not a great way to finish but could have been much worse!

In the first ten days of walking, I was really all about no pressure, just getting outside and trying to be consistent about it. The next 10 days have been a bit more adventurous and have seen me explore different routes around my immediate start point, try out some longer routes when time allows, and more importantly than anything, walk with some wildlife.

I’m ten days in to this month’s challenge and so far quite enjoying it. The plan was simply to get outside and walk for at least ten minutes every day and so far I’ve not managed less than 15 minutes, not so much because of enthusiasm but more because that’s just how long the short ‘routes around the block’ take. It’s nice though, getting outside, getting some fresh air, breaking up the day.

This is typical me. My Apple Watch fitness goal for August was based on completing a certain number of kilometres across the course of the month. I achieved it, just, but have now decided for September, I’m going to do a bit of walking every day. If I’d done this last month, I’d have easily achieved that badge. Oh well.

I don’t know if it’s just me but August has felt really long. In some ways that’s good, we’ve enjoyed some good weather (we’ve also endured some heatwaves) but also plenty of daylight, sunshine, and generally good vibes to offset the never-ending stream of bad news in the country and the world. My challenge this month was to try and eat a salad every day for lunch, 30 Days of Salads, if you will. I knew it wasn’t going to be completely practical and there was bound to be the odd day off, but in the end I only missed three salads. None of them were due to hangovers, which I give myself a pat on the back for. Instead, it was two separate days out which weren’t feasible for salads, and then one day at work where I hadn’t the energy to get prepared in time.

We’ve reached August and it’s time to start the eighth 30 day challenge of my year. Off the back of timing the Waterllama hydration challenge so perfectly for the hottest days in the UK ever, the summer vibe continues and this month I’m focused on lunchtimes. We’re going for 30 Days of Salads. I’ve been eating more salads recently anyway, but it feels like it’s time to give the meal some proper attention. Firstly, I want to investigate varieties and recipes for salad so that it’s not just lettuce and cucumber every day that could get boring. Secondly, understanding what I can use from my garden and what I can look to grow next year to make salads for lunch an easy and super tasty thing.

When I kicked off July’s 30 Day Challenge, to get a full month’s streak on the health tracker Waterllama, I thought it was just a fun thing to do with a cute app that would help me keep hydrated. How could I have predicted that it would be around at exactly the right time - when temperatures in the UK hit their highest ever for a couple of days and keeping fluid levels up became crucially important?

As always during the Apple Design Awards, this year I found myself downloading a variety of different award-winning and nominated apps. One of those was Waterllama, which is an adorable hydration tracker featuring several animals, including the titular llama, that you have to fill up with logged liquids to reach your goal.

This was a really interesting 30 day challenge for me. For the first week or so, it went perfectly, and then, of course, life got a bit busy and I started to lose the plot. In my head, ‘take a photo every day’ had become ‘take an amazing photo and post it to your website every single day.’ That, I think we can all agree, is much more challenging.

I’ve had a few months now that are more passive, reading challenges, so it’s time to turn the creative flow back on and do something productive. I’m going for something a bit more traditional this month - it’s June, it’s potentially summer, the sun should be out more than it isn’t, and there should be an opportunity for some good photos. That’s right, it’s a 30 days of photos challenge, where the plan, quite simply, is to take a fresh photo every day.

At the start of May’s 30-day challenge, I thought it was going to be a bit of a slog to get through a poem a day. By midway through, I was coming round to the idea, and by the end of the month, I think I’m okay with a bit of poetry now and then. I don’t think it’s something I want to keep up reading every day, despite having the book that makes it super easy with one poem for each day of the year. But I might keep it handy and catch up once in a while.

In coming up with plans for my various 30 day challenges this year, I stumbled across the 30 Days Wild initiative - an annual challenge from the Wildlife Trusts that encourages people, particularly kids, to get outside in nature and do wild things every day. It can be a fundraising thing, or just a participatory thing and it’s such a great idea. From 1-30 June, take part in the UK’s biggest nature challenge!

I’ve not set any hard and fast rules about how much to update my blog during a particular 30 day challenge because they’re all so different, and have different outputs. I only wrote an intro and an outtro to the Core challenge because what else is there to say? I didn’t gain a six pack so let’s move on. Meanwhile, I wrote three times about the Marvel Comic book challenge because there were things I needed to get off my not-very-defined chest.

Another month has ticked into action which means it’s time for another 30 day challenge to begin. This time: 30 Days of Poetry. This has come from a combination of lingering thoughts about Emily Dickinson following the exceptional Apple TV+ show, and the after effects of dipping into comics last month. Not two things that appear to have much in common at first, but the thing about the comics is, it made me see that to give a new type of media that you don’t usually like a go, you really have to give it a chance. I like the odd poem here and there, the standard classics and some old ones from childhood, but otherwise, I really don’t care about it much.

And we’re done, 30 days of comic books done and dusted. Have I learnt anything? Quite a lot actually but I think the main result of this thirty days is to prove that the Marvel comics are too complicated for me. Brilliant but hard. However, the Star Wars reboot - with that hard cut off between current canon and previous legend - is much easier to deal with.

Ten days of comics later, and I’m going to be honest, I don’t think I’m going to be reading all the Marvel comics that have ever been published. I like the idea of it, of course, but by day twenty I felt like the vast array of comics available was starting to get a bit wearing. I quite like browsing the covers and revelling in all the creativity that has gone into these issues - but picking what I actually want to read has been a challenge.

So far, my 30 Day Challenges have fallen into one of two themes - either trying to embed a habit, or really giving something a good go. The comic book challenge is the latter, something I’ve thought about and dipped into occasionally but never had the stamina to keep up a good streak of comic book reading. One thing I didn’t mention in my introductory post, is that the vastness of the various superhero universes is another thing that has previously put me off. And my reading for the first 10 days has proved that is something I was right to be nervous about.

I’ve dipped my toe into the comic book waters before, particularly when the official Back to the Future comics first launched. I quite enjoyed reading them but it’s not something that seriously stuck. If I’m honest that was mostly because I felt like they weren’t value for money - I 100% appreciate the talent and creativity that’s gone into creating the artwork and stories, but you can devour them so quickly… it feels like an expensive hobby.

And so, I’ve done it. 30 Days of ShadowDraw, the app that lets you follow a sketch as it comes to life and practice along with it. I really enjoyed this challenge, getting the most use out of my Apple Pencil possibly ever, and feeling like I was really getting into it by the end. But even with all that, I still don’t feel like I can ever actually be a good artist. The only thing that I felt was improving as I went along was my brushstrokes, getting a slightly steadier hand, and understanding the concept of that cross you draw on the oval of a face to place the eyes.

I’m halfway through my 30 Days of ShadowDraw challenge and really enjoying the chill vibes this month is giving me. The app allows you to pick a drawing and then effectively guides you through tracing how the picture comes together, so you end up with the finished result. I’m loving getting some use out of my Apple Pencil and occasionally feeling like I’m actually making some progress. Occasionally, I have a bout of doubt and say ‘but this isn’t really me drawing, it’s just copying.’ And then Mr C said, quite profoundly, ’the Core Challenge was just you copying and you didn’t have any problems with that’. Which is true and beats that imposter syndrome down. I’m doing what I’m doing and I love it!

The thing about breaking down the year into 30 day chunks is that February does a bit of a number on the pattern, whether it’s a leap year or not. That’s why on the second of March, I’m launching challenge three - drawing. I wrote previously about enjoying the app ShadowDraw, in fact when I first mentioned it, I was eyeing up a daily challenge they had launched to tie in with Christmas advent calendars. I don’t really want to talk about how many of those days I actually completed because it was barely any, and that’s why I’m bringing the idea back for this month.

The good news is my second attempt at a thirty day challenge was more successful than the first, in that I actually managed to do the thing every day for the full thirty days. In case you missed it, February’s task was to do the 30 Day Core Challenge that Apple Fitness+ had very kindly put up I suspect especially for me. And I did it! The first fifteen days were five minute workouts, and the second half was full of ten minute workouts, and I managed to do every single one, every single move (not always pretty but I tried), every single minute.

My second thirty day challenge of the year takes things away from the mental side of life (language learning) and more into the physical (health and fitness). Don’t worry, I’m sure not all the challenges will fit into the Crystal Maze categories. Almost as if they were listening to me, Apple Fitness+ released some updates this year that included a handful of curated collections - workout schedules to help you achieve certain goals. One is to get a stronger back, one is to get a better night’s sleep, and one, clearly made just for me, is a thirty day core challenge.

I set myself the January challenge of getting a thirty day Duolingo streak, concentrating on their French language course that I’ve been dipping in and out of for as long as I can remember. I ALMOST made it. If I’m being honest with myself, for the first thirty day challenge of the year, and as a means to getting back in the habit of checking into Duolingo every day, I’m happy with the result of a 29 day streak.

Halfway through the first month of the year, and that means halfway through my first 30 day challenge. It was a deliberately easy one - not having to go too far out of my way to make it happen, and something I have done before and know I can do. But even with that, resuming my Duolingo streak has meant remembering to do it each day for the fifteen days so far.

It’s become a tradition for me to write a new year post on this site, setting out what goals I’m going to try and fail at over the coming twelve months. Last year’s post was a little bit different, as we were all worn down by a pandemic that didn’t seem to be ending any time soon. I finished that post with the optimistic thought: “So here’s to 2021, and hoping that this time next year, we can all start making proper resolutions again.”