The 75 Soft challenge rules are simple by design: five daily habits, done every day for 75 days. Here’s each one broken down, plus what actually counts and what doesn’t.
Rule 1: Drink water
Stay hydrated throughout the day. The commonly cited target is around 3 litres, but the number isn’t the point, showing up for it daily is. If you’re customizing the challenge, replacing this with a hydration goal that fits your body size or activity level is fine; the habit of daily, deliberate hydration is what matters.
Rule 2: Move your body for 45 minutes
One structured 45-minute session of movement per day. This is the biggest departure from 75 Hard, which requires two workouts (one strictly outdoors). On 75 Soft, a single session, a walk, a lift, a class, a home workout, satisfies the rule.
Rule 3: Read 10 pages
Ten pages a day of a book. Non-fiction or personal-development titles are the traditional choice, but the rule works with any genre as long as it’s a real daily reading habit rather than skimming a few paragraphs to check a box.
Rule 4: Follow a diet of your choosing
This is the rule most people get wrong. “Of your choosing” doesn’t mean “no rule.” It means you pick a specific way of eating (whatever fits your goals) and hold yourself to it every day, the same way you would with any of the other four habits. This is also the biggest difference from the strict, alcohol-free 75 Hard diet.
Rule 5: Take a daily progress photo
One photo a day, same time and angle if you can manage it. It’s the habit people forget most often, and the one that makes day 75 land differently when you can actually see the 75 days between the first photo and the last.
What happens if you miss a rule for the day?
Nothing resets. That’s the entire point of 75 Soft versus 75 Hard: a missed habit or a missed day doesn’t send you back to day 1. You mark it as missed (most trackers, including Thrive, will show this visually) and continue the next day. Consistency over the full 75 days is what builds the habit, not a perfect, unbroken streak.
Can you customize the 75 Soft rules?
Yes, this is one of the challenge’s biggest strengths over 75 Hard’s fixed rule set. People regularly swap in habits like journaling, meditation, or a step count goal, or adjust the numbers (30 minutes instead of 45, 5 pages instead of 10) to fit their life. The structure, five daily habits, tracked every day for 75 days, is what makes it work, not the specific numbers.
Keeping five daily habits straight on paper gets messy fast. If you want somewhere that tracks all five (default or customized) and shows your whole 75-day run at a glance, see how Thrive turns each day’s checklist into a growing garden.