Do the 100 day project TOGETHER.

by Amanda Billing February 9, 2026

100 Day Projects = REAL TALK

This year (2026), I'm offering my online and IRL pals the opportunity to go on the journey with me, joining thousands of others in the international version, starting Sunday Feb 22nd.

Anyone can do a 100 day project, any time. You could start today if you wanted to - you don't need a friend and no one needs to know. But there's something about going TOGETHER which makes the experience very special.

There's no "official" project but an international project has grown in popularity and organisation over the last 10+ years thanks to Elle Luna and Lindsay Jean Thompson.

Our cohort will be following along with thousands of other people from all over the globe, taking on a daily creative challenge, sharing our work, and encouraging each other to explore and succeed. Find out more about this project via Do The 100 Day Project's Substack.

AB, what IS it with you and 100 day projects?

Simply? They've put me back together.

My first 100 day project was self-led back in 2011. I came across the idea (somewhere, probably the internet I dunno) and decided to complete one as an unofficial form of creative arts therapy. I didn't even know that was "a thing", I just knew I was unhappy and talk therapy wasn't cutting the mustard. It had occurred to me that my distress might be linked to that fact that I hadn't made any art since I left school and I'd always been "the arty one". So I decided, quietly and privately, to change the situation.

My challenge was to take a photograph of something heart-shaped every day (example above). I documented my work in a blog I didn't share with anyone (I can't ever remember where it was hosted!) and I posted my daily photographs on Instagram without making a big deal about what I was up to. I made it to the end, allowing the project to morph and evolve, tied always to the daily photograph but growing to encompass jewellery-making and different forms of craft.

2016: the year I made my 100 day project a part time job.

I came across the idea again five years later after discovering a lovely artist and writer called Elle Luna. She had been convening an international version on Instagram for a little while. It caught my eye again and I realised I really needed it in my life again. I'd been out of Shortland Street for a couple of years and my sense of creativity - my sense of self - was at a low ebb after 10 years devoted to the place. I knew I needed something to sink my teeth into. Something to get me out of the house. Something to accomplish.

That photographic project was called #intomeandsee, because (1) we had to come up with a novel hashtag to draw our work together into a collection and (2) the mode I wanted to pursue was an intimate, open-hearted one. I wanted the photographs to capture connection. Apart from that deeper goal, the rules for it were very simple: I had to post a black and white picture of a human being every day. By the end of the project I had relaxed those rules somewhat but the essential rule remained: I had to use my camera every day to connect with another (human) being and upload it to IG every night.

That project changed my working life, enabling me to call myself a portrait photographer and to grow the headshot and portraiture business I run today. I miss those shoot-from-the-hip days now that my practice is studio-based and structured and I look to the project for inspiration often. I'm also grateful for the new friendships I made in the process, many of which continue ten years later.

So, what exactly IS a 100 day project?

The 100 day project was conceived by teacher Michael Beirut in the mid-2000s as a long form "workshop" with his graphic design grads. I think he created it so his students could get a feel for what it's like to have to come up with ideas every day when they were finally out in the workforce. There's no time or room to be guided by "inspiration" and they would have to come up with ideas when they weren't "in the mood":

"People have asked me many times to say what, exactly, is the point of this project. I’ve always had a fascination with the ways that creative people balance inspiration and discipline in their working lives. It’s easy to be energized when you’re in the grip of a big idea. But what do you do when you don’t have anything to work with? Just stay in bed?"

He's brutally honest with his students about what it will be like. I picture it being a bit like the intro to Fame... . Now that pic at the top of this blog makes sense, right?

So, what should I DO every day for 100 days?

Choosing a good action to repeat each day can take a bit of brain-storming. It should be something art-based or at least with an aesthetic element. The idea is to immerse yourself in something is either inherently creative OR which you can document in a creative or artistic way.

For example, you could select something exercise- or food(diet)-based BUT only if your physical movements are expressive or the way you document your daily "action" is artistic. Cooking and baking are inherently creative - work on your food styling skills!

I've seen people write haiku, arrange flowers, do collage, make prints, create abstracts, garden, knit, quilt, embroider. Honestly, as long as your motivation is tied to your personal expression and/or you document your life in a beautiful way and/or from a particular POV, you can choose pretty much anything.

It helps to have limitations though. We will discuss this in our Planning Zoom.

Do I have to post my work on Instagram?

I guess not but sharing your work has always been a big part of the international project run by Elle and Lindsay. If you don't want to share your work publicly, it's a good idea to examine that. Why not? If you feel that what you're exploring will be too personal or you'll feel too vulnerable, that's understandable. But at least post it somewhere just for you. Watching your body of work grow is one of the most exciting parts of the experience.

You could start an IG profile that's anonymous/hidden and post your daily working there. Who knows, maybe at a certain point you might want to make it public and/or share it with friends.

If you have an Adobe account you should have access to the free portfolio offering if your project is primarily visual.

You could start a Substack or a Wordpress or Blogger.com. No one needs to know about it. It'll be like a needle in a haystack.

If it's a written project, you could format your work in a particular way and print it out or at the very least save it somewhere in a systematic way, even if you didn't want to post your work publicly (but I still think you should). Then you might like to use a publishing platform such as Milk Books or Snapfish to make yourself a limited edition.

What sort of thing is best to choose?

This depends entirely on your internal motivation to start and your capacity to commit.

I always suggest you choose something that can be summarised as an action. The projects I have completed had a simple, specific action to perform/carry out, eg

take a photograph of something heart-shaped everyday
post a black and white picture of a human being every day
paint every day, either at home or in a studio
write for 20 minutes every day about an aspect of art-making
draw every day on a set of blank postcards

You can see clearly that there's a VERB here, the thing to DO. The painting one was quite straightforward even though it was more open-ended: I would need a brush, a medium, and something to paint on. And whatever I did, I had to document it, post it or save it somewhere.

Make it easy to begin your project each day. As the king of habits James Clear says, “Before you try to increase your willpower, try to decrease the friction in your environment.” Read this article for ideas and encouragement for what he calls priming your environment.

Having your materials where you can see them everyday really helps. We are all on our devices every day so if your project needs a phone or computer, you should be sweet as. Some people take great pleasure in preparing the 100 separate items they'll need ahead of Day One of the project (eg, quilting squares, balls of yarn, booklet pages to paint on or write in). They then work their way through their supply as they go.

It can help to limit the format of your project, in terms of materials or time. My project last year consisted of paintings that were done on a consistent paper stock and size. This year I will start my project in a relatively open way (create with clay every day) but it won't surprise me if I end up settling into a particular process.

Sometimes it can help to imagine what you'd like to produce and work backwards from there. Photographs and paper are defined by their format. But you might decide to embroider or quilt or knit something of a manageable size and sew them together at the end of 100 days.

Your project doesn't need to demand loads of time, money or resources. It can be as doable as carving out 20 minutes a day for a simple artistic action such as a photograph taken on your phone.

But if you heart wants you to go BIGGER, you can live and breathe your project. Choose something demanding. Raise your bar. It can become a part time job for a while if that's what you need and you have the time and space.

The other thing to remember is that you must ALWAYS have a minimum viable content option up your sleeve.

Minimim Viable Content Days

Carrying your thing out every day will test your ego, your attention span, and your will. But it's worth it if you can hang in there and ride the 100 days out. The 100 day project is a relationship: for richer, for poorer, in boredom and in joy lol. Your project will reflect your relationship with your mind and your self, and some days it might not feel that romantic.

You will need things up your sleeve which qualify as "doing the project" when you end up being too busy with other commitments or when you're having an internal tantrum. Be prepared for those "off days".

It's totally okay to half-arse your work sometimes, to be a minimum-viable-content human, just don't quit.

The images above were the MVC I said I could get away with on a bumpy day: if I just made repetitive marks, that was enough. But because my materials were inherently pleasing (free and colourful), even something simple could feel satisfying. And when I look at pieces like these in the context of my whole project, they contribute in their own way:

There will be days when circumstances conspire to make it tricky to find time to do your daily work. There will definitely be days when you complain about having to do it full stop.

Don't be a little b*tch on those days: if you're not going to do your project, do something that feeds your project instead.

Research qualifies as doing the project. It's actually a really healthy, approach to take, to look into the history of what you're doing and to look around at what contemporary practitioners are up to. Look for work that inspires you. It's likely you've chosen your project because you've seen/read/absorbed work by other artists. Look them up on the days you don't have the time or the heart. Google stuff. Go down the rabbit hole.

Research might even take over and that's okay. Speaking of this:

Can I change my project as I go?

HELL YES. Last year, I started with the intention to try a new art class exercise each day. Very quickly though, I settled into a pattern of working on the same kind of paper and exploring different watercolour techniques. I still went looking for exercises occasionally but the project became defined by its limitations: paper size and materials.

I would rather you get real about what you're interested in and changed it as you went, than you let yourself stop altogether.

I want to help you keep going if you feel like you need or want some support. Register to join our group here.

The 100 Day Project requires commitment, consistency and patience. It's a relationship with your personal creativity. It's a marathon. Sometimes you run. Other days you skip. Other days you have to slow down and take it easy.

It can be just like a fun run: travelling with the pack can help you keep putting one foot in front of the other. The online IG community is wonderful to connect with - people are doing it all over the world. And if you have local friend doing it too that's a bonus. If you decided to share your work publicly (please do it, it's the fast track to creative confidence) your friends and family will cheer you on. And if they don't, block them.

So what about this Group Cohort Thing you're running, AB?

Since I started running Drawing Club in the middle of 2025, I've seen the benefits of making art together and I've grown in confidence in my ability to facilitate creativity in other people. This year, I felt like having some buddies along for the ride.

So I decided to ask my community if they (YOU) want to do the project with me.Here's what I reckon we will do:

a planning Zoom the week before it starts ( on Feb 14th, either 9am or in the afternoon - I’ll canvas the group)
weekly emails from yours truly to keep us all motivated and connected
quarterly Zooms together on Days 25, 50, 75 and 100 so that we can share what we’re doing IRL
a pot luck gathering in Day 100 in my Grey Lynn studio to celebrate. Because Art Parties are Good Parties.

I've started the 100 day project ten times so I know the terrain. The ones I've completed changed my life. The ones I didn't finish taught me things. Every single project made my life better in some way.

Let me be clear: I don't believe in "accountability". Whether you start/commit/complete a 100 day project is between You and You. I do believe in the power of community, however. FOMO can be super helpful lol. And I believe in the power of a really important WHY as the way to recruit your will, as well as limiting friction so that it's really easy to just start.

So. Join our Kiwi Crew of people wanting to set themselves a creative and personal challenge. It might just change your life.

xAB