it's okay if challenges don't work for you
for habit-formation, the consensus is that "doing x for y days" will set you up for a solid habit. unfortunately, it's one of those cases where science was taken by media and twisted into a product. that product being challenges.
anything from 30-day yoga challenges to Inktober to Mermay to Knightober (gosh the art community has these for every month and week of the year i think), the bottom line for all of them is that if you practice something for long enough, you'll either get good at it and keep doing it, or you'll have at least done it.
thing is, for a completionist, perfectionist mind, this just utterly misses the mark. i can't even start a challenge, because i know, down the line, there will be a day when i won't be able to or won't want to do it. and then it'll all come crashing down - do i skip the day and continue with the next, potentially missing out on something interesting? do it do that day's challenge the next day, extending the duration of the challenge beyond what it was supposed to be? ugh!
way easier just never to begin it at all.
fortunately, habit-formation can still be done in less agonising ways. two life-changing habits i've introduced in my life over the pandemic - meditation and daily morning yoga - started out as a non-committal exploration. i tried out this thing once, just to see if it would feel good. and then, if it did, i'd do it again the next day. i could quit any time i wanted to, skip any day i wanted to. stop completely. i didn't have to do it, no higher power ordering me to do it. it just felt good and that's why i kept doing it!
there are also less stringent forms of challenges that i can commit to, like doing the thing at least 14 days out of 30. that gives me virtual "day off" tickets i can use on any day i just don't feel like it.
(also it's fine if challenges are useful for you and you've managed to get over perfectionism and form habits that way. i'm just giving options and sharing my experience.)
