A weekly challenge is the most forgiving kind. A daily streak breaks on one bad Tuesday; a weekly target ("gym three times this week") survives it. That's why weekly challenges are the ones friend groups actually finish, and why Daily Pact supports "X times per week" as a challenge type alongside daily ones.
Below are 40 ideas, each with a suggested weekly target. Score by whether each person hit the target, not by raw totals. That keeps the runner and the beginner on the same leaderboard.
Fitness
- Gym or home workout: 3 times a week
- A run of any length: 3 times
- 50,000 steps: the weekly version of 7,000 a day, with rest days built in
- One long walk: once, 10 km or 90 minutes
- Stretch or yoga, 10 minutes: 5 times
- 100 push-ups across the week: any split
- Cycle or walk to work: 3 commutes
- Take the stairs every time: 5 days
- One new activity (a class, a swim, a climb): once
- A 5k: once, walked or run
Want the strictest daily version instead? 75 Hard with friends means two workouts a day for 75 days, and a missed day sends you back to day 1.
Health
- Cook at home: 5 dinners
- No takeaways: all week
- Two litres of water: 5 days
- No alcohol on weekdays: 5 days
- In bed by 11: 5 nights
- No sugar: 5 days, weekends off (rules and a tracker in our no sugar challenge guide)
- Vegetables with every dinner: 7 dinners
- Meal prep: once, Sunday
- A screen-free hour before bed: 4 nights
- Outside for 20 minutes: 5 days
Productivity and learning
- Read 20 pages: 5 days, or one book a week
- Inbox zero by Friday: once
- Phone-free first hour of the day: 5 days
- 30 minutes of a language app: 4 days
- Write 500 words: 4 days
- One deep-work block of 90 minutes: 3 times
- Learn one thing and teach it to the group: once
- Finish the week's to-do list by Thursday: once
- No social media before noon: 5 days
- Practice an instrument: 4 days, 15 minutes
Money
- No-spend days: 3 days
- Bring lunch to work: 4 days
- Transfer to savings: once, an agreed amount
- Cancel or review one subscription: once
- Log every purchase: 7 days
Fun and social
- Call a friend or family member: 3 calls
- Cook one recipe you've never made: once
- One photo a day, shared with the group: 7 days
- A compliment to a stranger: 3 times
- Try something on the group's dare list: once
Need ideas for that dare list? Start with these fun challenges to do with friends, or, for a week when nobody wants to go out, these fun challenges to do at home.
How to run a weekly challenge with friends
- Pick one idea and phrase the target as a number: "gym 3×", not "go to the gym more".
- Score by target hit, not totals. Three people who all trained three times are all winners. If you want a competition on top, break ties by who hit it first in the week.
- Run it for four weeks. One week is a novelty; four is a habit and a real leaderboard. Daily Pact's stats have weekly and monthly views, so at the end of week four everyone can see their month at a glance.
- Decide what a missed week means before it happens. In Daily Pact the group can approve a PactPause so a holiday doesn't reset anyone.
- Rotate who picks. Four weeks, four people, four challenges keeps it interesting.
For a full setup guide see how to start a 30-day challenge with friends. For longer lists, see daily challenge ideas, monthly challenge ideas and 30-day challenge ideas for groups.
Running a weekly challenge for a whole group
Weekly targets suit a team at work, a class or a club well, because they leave room for meetings, travel and Fridays. In Daily Pact you can invite everyone at once: one link in the group chat or Slack, several contacts at a time, a pasted email list (up to 200 addresses) or a QR code at the meeting. Then choose who pays. One person can cover everyone with a Group plan, from $9.99 a month for up to 15 people, so nobody else needs a subscription. Or everyone uses their own 14-day free trial. See how Daily Pact works for groups.
Frequently asked questions
What is a good weekly challenge?
One with a number in it and a rest day built in: gym three times, cook five dinners, 50,000 steps. It should be hard enough to skip once and still achievable.
How do you score a weekly challenge with friends?
By whether each person hit their target. It keeps people with different fitness levels on the same leaderboard. Raw totals reward whoever had the most free time.
Weekly or daily challenges: which is better?
Weekly for anything with a natural rest day (workouts, cooking, deep work). Daily for small habits that should be automatic (water, reading, no phone in bed). Many groups run one of each.
How many weeks should a challenge last?
Four. One week is too short to matter; four gives a habit time to form and a leaderboard time to mean something.