What to Do After Day 40: How to Choose Your Next Challenge

After Day 40, do three things: review what happened, decide what to keep, and choose your next challenge within a week so you don't lose momentum. Your next challenge can continue the same habit, grow it into something bigger, or switch to a new area of your life. The right choice depends on how the first 40 days went.

Finishing a challenge is a great feeling. But the days right after can be tricky. Without a clear next step, many people drift back to old routines. Here's how to make the end of one challenge the start of the next.

Step 1: Celebrate first

Before you analyze anything, take a moment to notice what you did. You showed up for 40 days. That's worth marking.

• Tell someone you finished.
• Give yourself a small reward that fits the goal.
• Write one sentence: "In the last 40 days, I…"

This isn't just nice. Ending on a positive note makes it easier to start again.

Step 2: Review your 40 days

Set aside 20–30 minutes. Read your daily notes, or at least skim them, and answer these questions:

Question	What it tells you
How many days did I complete?	How realistic the plan was
Which days were easiest? Why?	What to repeat
Which days were hardest? Why?	What to change
What changed compared to Day 1?	The real result
Does the habit feel automatic yet?	Whether to continue
Did I enjoy it?	Whether it's worth keeping

If you used reflection prompts during the challenge, the big-picture questions in our daily reflection questions work well here.

Step 3: Decide — keep, grow or switch

Based on your review, pick one of three paths.

Keep: make it part of your life

Choose this if the habit helped and you want to keep it, but it doesn't need to grow. Lower the tracking effort: keep doing the action, but check in weekly instead of daily. Many habits keep strengthening well past 40 days. In the often-cited 2010 study by Phillippa Lally and colleagues at University College London, it took participants about 66 days on average for a behavior to feel automatic, with a wide range between people. So if it doesn't feel automatic yet, that's normal. We cover this in detail in how long it really takes to build a habit.

Grow: level up the same goal

Choose this if you enjoyed it and want more. Make the next 40 days a step up:

• 10 pages a day → 20 pages a day
• Walking 20 minutes → run/walk intervals
• Journaling 5 minutes → journaling plus a weekly review

Growing works best when you increase one thing at a time.

Switch: start something new

Choose this if the first challenge did its job, or if it wasn't the right fit. Pick a new area of your life. Your first challenge taught you a lot about what works for you; use that knowledge.

Step 4: Choose your next challenge

If you're switching, use these filters to pick:

1. What area of life needs attention most right now? Health, learning, work, relationships, money or mindset.
2. What did the last challenge make possible? A morning routine might make a reading or exercise challenge easier.
3. What's realistic for the next six weeks? Look at your calendar. Travel, exams or a big project might call for a smaller challenge.
4. What excites you? Motivation is easier when you actually want to do it.

Need inspiration? Browse our 40 day challenge ideas, or turn a long-term goal into a challenge with our guide to breaking big goals into daily actions.

Step 5: Start within seven days

A short break is fine, even healthy. But a long gap makes it easy to drift. Set your next start date before you finish reviewing, ideally within a week.

Some people like to start the next challenge the very next day. Others take a few days off. Either works, as long as the start date is on your calendar.

Should you stack challenges?

Running two 40 day challenges at once is tempting after a success. A safer approach:

• Keep the first habit in maintenance mode (weekly check-in).
• Start one new challenge as your daily focus.

This way you build on what you've done without overloading yourself.

A simple year of 40 day challenges

Forty days is about six weeks, so a year has room for roughly eight challenges with short breaks. A possible sequence:

Challenge	Focus
1	Morning routine (no phone first 30 minutes)
2	Daily walk
3	Reading 10 pages
4	Journaling
5	Strength training basics
6	Learning a skill
7	Money tracking
8	Reflection and planning for next year

You don't need to plan all eight now. Just choose the next one.

FAQ

Should I repeat the same 40 day challenge?

Yes, if the habit isn't automatic yet or you want to go deeper. Many people repeat a challenge with a slightly bigger daily action.

How long should I rest between challenges?

There's no fixed rule. A few days to a week works for most people. Set the next start date so the break doesn't become permanent.

What if I didn't finish all 40 days?

Review it the same way. Look at what got in the way, make the daily action smaller and try again. A partly finished challenge still taught you something.

WholeLifeLog is designed for this rhythm: when one 40 day challenge ends, you can look back across your notes and reflections, then start the next journey.