12 Ultimate 30-Day Challenge Ideas That Will Work Wonders In 2024

Building a great habit is easier said than done.

It requires one’s sheer effort and patience so that he or she doesn’t leave the process halfway.

As per a psychology research, forming a new healthy habit takes a longer time than breaking the bad ones. To be precise it takes 21 days approximately involving multiple steps starting from decision to following it on a daily basis.

I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks, but I do fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times. -Bruce Lee

So before you decide to call off your fitness goals, try a new approach to gamifying your wellness journey with 30-day challenges ideas!

The Need for 30-Day Challenge Ideas

The outbreak of COVID-19 taught us to value our health and fitness more than anything else.
We could not agree enough that the end of this decade was more dramatic than we can ask for!

So as you bid adieu to 2023, why not start your new year with 30-day wellness challenges to get the ball rolling?

Role of Wellness Challenges and Contests In Employees' Health

Corporate employees are the prime victims of bad habits due to their hectic lifestyles. From gaining weight to unhealthy addictions employees' health is a major concern across any organization. Because of their deteriorating health, your entire business performance may get affected in terms of quality and quantity.

But did you know that leaders who value employees' health and fitness have a higher rate of thriving in their business?

A Willis Towers Watson report says that organizations that invest significantly in wellness programs benefit from healthcare savings, quality service, and sickness rates.

While such programs act as an external motivation, long-term success only comes when one truly embodies these good habits into their lifestyle.

For this, including a fun 30-days challenge framework in your wellness program can prove a surefire way to encourage healthy living amongst your employees that will help in boosting lifelong habit formation.

The main idea is to gamify your entire employee wellness program with daily new health challenges for the next thirty days. You can reward incentives and recognition based on their performances and commitments.

So if you’re looking for some quicks and achievable 30-days challenge ideas for your employees, follow me below as I help you list our top 30-days challenge ideas only for you!

The Ultimate List of Interesting 30 Day Challenge Ideas

For Health and Fitness

1. No Sugar Month

Who doesn’t love sweets and savory? Saying no to your sweet tooth can be a tough deal while sugar happens to be the main ingredient in almost all dishes!

There is no denying that excessive intake of refined sugars can have adverse effects on your health. Employees who drool over coffee and desserts while at work can easily attract such health effects in no time!

Does it sound like you?

Then starting a 30-day no sugar challenge is just for you!

Ways To Do It:

• To give a kick start you can start curbing the most obvious sweet dishes like cakes, cookies, and chocolate bars from the office canteen.

• Replace your sugar intake with other sweet substances like stevia.

• Eat at least one fruit to help in filling the nutritional gaps in your diet. Keep a balanced portion of vitamins and minerals.

2. 7 Minute Workout

Exercise is one of the essential factors to leading a healthy lifestyle.

With busy office schedules, work-life balance hits rock bottom for an average employee. Maintaining personal desires, family needs along with the gym seems near to impossible while working.

At the workplace too, employers are worried about the sluggish nature of work by their employees.

So are you wondering how to make your employees active in less time?

A 7-minute workout is just for you!

There’s a reason why a 7-minute workout has gained popularity recently. Because of its quick and easy high-intensity exercises, people find it easy and convenient to perform irrespective of time and place.

In fact, this can be an ideal workout for every working professional who complains of not having time.

• So to make the process easy, offer your employees a flexible work schedule and breaks to carry out this short exercise.

• Creating an in-house workout room is another way to boost health and fitness at the workplace.

• Offer the Vantage Fit app to your employees, to keep a record of their 7 minutes of workout.

Also, don’t forget to check out our detailed blog on the 7-minute workout for your employees. It has some quick tips and tricks that can come in really handy while exercising.

Related: 42 Easy Office Exercises You Can Do At Your Desk To Stay Fit

3. Take your Meal to Work

While at work, we are prone to consuming unhealthy food from various sources. From food delivery services to office canteens, we don’t give second thoughts on the number of calories we are consuming before ordering their meals.

No doubt the fast food or exotic restaurant meals taste lip-smacking to you, but frequent consumption can prove toxic to your health and wealth as well!

It’s of utmost essential to assess your employees' inquiries if they’re dining out frequently. If yes, then there are higher possibilities of them getting fatigued and unproductive at work.

According to the American Heart Association, over half of the workers in the United States reported indulging in unhealthy eating while at work. Also, 77% of them confirmed that eating healthy at work has helped them in making better eating decisions outside work.

So how can you encourage healthy eating at the workplace?

No doubt that eating at home requires time and effort, but it is a more feasible and beneficial way. In the workplace, eating habits can greatly impact you and your employee’s well-being.

Ways To Do It:

Promoting proper nutrition and wellness initiatives can help in curbing ineffectiveness and creating a healthy workplace.

• Design a 30-day healthy lunch challenge for your employees and incentivize their eating habits.

• You can allow them to choose their own meal routine so that they don't feel demotivated while they are minimizing their cravings.

• Incorporating the Vantage Fit application is another way to track and reward their healthy eating habits.

For Mental Health

4. Practice Zen

Why is it that your employees spent their entire time working, yet you don't get enough productive results from them?

Productivity issues have many dimensions. Some spend time uselessly while some keep trying but fail to get the most out of it. The latter point is more painful to accept for the hardworking employees, as they only lack focus and discipline while getting the job done. It can affect them mentally and emotionally, ultimately leaving them stressed at work.

So how can one feel joyful and generous if they are constantly nagged by the feeling of completing too much work in less time?

Solution? Regular practice of mindfulness.

With the COVID 19 pandemic, many remote workers have faced burnout while working. This has covered the headlines of many news articles resulting in valuing mental health across every organization.

The central idea of mindfulness is to bring positivity, peace, and consciousness in personal and professional lives. Zen meditation is a similar concept of mindfulness that deals with the presence of the mind.

Ways To Do It:

• You can initiate 30-day mental wellness challenges that urge every employee to do Zen meditation for 30 minutes during working hours.

• When at the office you can create in-house Zen office rooms with the necessary Zen equipment to practice.

• Hold Zen webinars for better focus and guidance.

• Free subscription to virtual meditation apps like Calm, Headspace can also help your remote employees stay calm.

Related: 42 Easy Office Exercises You Can Do At Your Desk To Stay Fit

5. Practice Affirmation

Positive affirmations are effective power statements that shape an individual's persona. It helps in boosting confidence and reducing negativity at both professional and personal levels.

Practicing affirmation can act as doses of motivation shots for a better day. Such little encouragement can help yourself and others to be better at skills or activities.

At the workplace, employers can boost the self-esteem of their employees through positive affirmations. This way, employees are motivated to work on their skills and produce quality results.

Team up your employees, and assign tasks for the next 30 days; advise them to complement each other with good thoughts whenever an individual completes the target.

You can create a vision board near your office's central hall and invite employees to write affirmative quotes every day. Ask everyone to repeat the quotes before starting the work.

Also Read: 35 Inspirational Quotes For Work To Hustle Hard

6. Go to Bed Early

Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.

We are pretty much familiar with this old saying from our childhood days. But have you ever thought about why a sleep schedule is so important?

The consequences of insufficient sleep can be dire. Cases of insomnia, restlessness, and depression are on the rise among adults.

At the workplace, employees spend most of their time in front of laptops and mobile phones. The blue light coming from these gadgets significantly affects their eyes, leaving them tired and restless. They might experience difficulty in sleeping and waking up during the daytime.

Also Read: Vision Wellness- Maintaining Eye Health at Work

As per a study conducted by Havard university, lack of sleep affects one's consciousness, decision-making capability, and growth. This can lead to bodily disorders to severe mental health issues.

Taking the situation seriously, you can help your employees in making their sleep cycles consistent. Try to device a wellness plan with sleep tracking apps and measure their sleep pattern. Create a sleep campaign for a month and reward the best performance with goodies.

Also Read: How Sleep Deprivation Affects Work Performance

For Personal Growth

7. Read Everyday

Reading can be a wonderful way to expand your mind and reduce stress.

You can choose whatever books take your fancy: fiction or non-fiction.

Reading before you turn the lights out at the end of the day is an excellent way to unwind and disconnect from technology.

Make sure you’re either reading a book or a device like a Kindle rather than your phone, laptop, or tablet. This will ensure you’re not exposed to blue light which can interfere with your circadian rhythm.

8. Learn Foreign Languages

Learning a new language can entail learning to speak a different language or learning to write computer code.

Foreign language skills are vital in today’s global economy. Language proficiency supports executives to advance in their careers and helps multinational companies speed up overseas expansion.

Every CEO or HR manager who wants to hire a language trainer struggles to quantify the value and benefit of language training to the business but there is convincing data to help them make their case.

9. No Spend Month

Personal finances are one of the top ten causes of stress. Challenge employees to reduce their financial stress by giving them the resources they need to make sure they’re on top of their financial wellness. For those employees who actively make use of the resources—whether it’s access to a financial planner, investment courses, or savings plans—with cash bonuses.

You can also invite employees to create personal financial goals, and then reward them for their progress. For example, if an employee is saving for a house or struggling to pay off student loans, offer to match a certain percentage of their own efforts to help them reach their goals faster.

Also Read: Financial Wellness- An Issue in Overall Employee Wellness

For Mindful Productivity

10. Practice Discipline

Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment - Jim Rohn

Discipline makes a man perfect.

In the workplace, it helps your employees to achieve their work faster. A disciplined individual is always punctual with his work. It benefits the organization to get quality work at the right time.

To get the most out of every day for the next 30 days, employers can advise employees to apply the Eisenhower Matrix.

It helps in determining what's essential and urgent. It is an age-old technique, yet useful to overcome procrastination completely.

Also Read: 100 Procrastination Quotes To Get You Through The Day

11. Take a Hobby

Do you know hobbies are an excellent mind productivity task?

Well, it restrains one's idle mind from becoming a devil's workshop! Okay, that's on a lighter note.

Indeed a person with hobbies is known to be interesting, fun, and creative. As per a report by Psychology Today, hobbies are fantastic ways to reduce workplace stress, foster interpersonal relations, and teach one the value of productive time.

So it doesn't matter if your wellness challenge consists of some fun elements on the list; encouraging your employees to take new hobbies this summer month is an ideal choice.

Please take note of your employee's choice of hobbies and offer necessary items to pursue them.

Try to incentivize your employee's progress for better participation.

12. Brainstorm New Ideas

Don't wait for inspiration. It comes while one is working.- Henri Matisse

Some say that inspiration strikes when you least expect it.

While it might be right for them, I assume that it's an inefficient way to drive innovation and creativity at work.

Imagine the time when you and your employees were figuring solutions to a problem, like strategies for your company deal. Without brainstorming ideas and possibilities, your entire business would have come at stake.

Brainstorming is an efficient way to boost creativity and critical-thinking skills among your employees.

Ask for their consent and note down their proposed solutions for the same.

Over To You

Remember, health and wellness are personal pursuits.

Make sure you regularly check in with your employees to make sure they have the resources they need. Invite them to create their own wellness challenges, and to stick to their personal goals.

Rather than making them participate in the wellness challenges your company implements, try incorporating wellness initiatives into your discussions around professional development, and support them in whatever way you can.