‘The Great Lock In’ challenge is going viral online, here’s why I won’t be joining in

“I’m ready to see some sunshine and cancel some pilates classes to drink Aperol Spritz.”

TikTok’s ‘great lock-in’ challenge started being drip-fed to me in the last couple of weeks. It popped up in a friend’s captions at first, then in how-to videos detailing what you needed to do to successfully ‘lock in’ and meet your goals.

The challenge officially kicked off on September 1 and continues on until December 31. As explained by TikTok user, artofanna, it’s about “going all in on your goals before the year ends”.

Interested to hear how others navigate the world? Head to our Life section.

Because of the timeline, there’s often a sense of urgency that underpins the challenge, as well. “It’s a sprint,” user _tatianaforbes says. “Its a period of time where you’re putting in an immense amount of effort, intense focus and quite frankly, it should make you feel a little uncomfortable.”

At the end of the day, you can set your own goals but the idea is that you need limit your distractions (i.e., your screen time), and as the name implies, lock in.

First impressions of ‘The Great Lock In’

I’d be lying if I said I don’t find the idea of transforming my life overnight seductive. Sometimes, the idea of adding something new to my plate feels too overwhelming to even entertain but every now and then, I’m struck with a surge of motivation to completely overhaul my wardrobe, redo my house, find a new hobby – to become an entirely new person. The Pinterest board comes out. Strava is downloaded or I add something (anything) to cart, and so the rebrand begins.

But I’d also be lying if I said the feeling was typically born from a strong place of security. On the contrary, in fact. The idea of “hunkering down” and finally doing all the things I’ve said I was once going to do, usually makes me feel bad. It implies procrastination and inaction, and assumes that, above all, self-optimisation is my end goal.

At most cross-sections of our lives, efficiency is king. It’s the idea the if we can fit more into our nine-to-fives, more into our five-to-nines, then we should. Increasingly, we’re streamlining our days and our tasks, opting for the path of least resistance. And sure, things like ChatGPT might give us more time in the day, but it leaves me wondering: time to do what exactly?

Crash diets, remarketed

While each person’s goal might differ slightly, the idea of the great lock in isn’t about slowing down and making time for leisure. It’s also hard to deny that a lot of goals associated with locking in revolve around fitness and nutrition. One video I came across, which at the time of writing has over 15,000 likes, listed the following as among its top rules: Wake up by 5am, go to sleep by 9pm, work out five to six times a week, hit 10,000 steps, no fast food and no sugar.

One day, it was juice cleanses and skinny teas, then it was all ‘75Hard‘ – now, it’s the great lock in. The common thread? All are about setting ambitious rules and goals under the banner of personal growth. It’s hard not see it a clever way to rebrand crash dieting.

I’m not alone in thinking this, either. Kic, an online health and wellness app, recently expressed a similar sentiment. “At a glance it seems like a well-meaning and unassuming trend. Focusing on our health, wellness and mindset should not inherently be a bad thing. But when we dug deeper into the trend, our alarm bells started ringing,” the company shared in an article online. “The trend stinks of the rhetoric that ‘summer bodies are made in the winter’ and other toxic relics of the early 2000s.”

In saying that, there is room in the lock in challenge for non-fitness related goals, like trying a new hobby, reading 10 pages a day, sorting out your finances or practising gratitude. Which, in theory, seems perfectly fine. But what echoes louder when I search ‘lock in’ on TikTok and I’m met with a slew of videos espousing things like “you’re getting distracted again”, photos of people’s meals or workout videos.

Have you tried locking in to joy?

Recently, I came across a TikTok video from Fashion Journal contributor and Culture Club co-host, Maggie Zhou, articulating another one of my main gripes with the challenge. “We’re all talking about the great lock in but all I’m seeing is really depressing desk setup, protein shakes, Excel spreadsheet, airport self-help book. Have you tried locking in to joy? Into fun? Into friendship?,” she asks.

It’s something our office is fairly aligned on. “The issue with trends like the ‘great lock in’ is that social media shows you only the highest performing people following that trend and the risk of this, is that it makes you believe you have to operate at that same level, which stirs up feelings of inadequacy,” Fashion Journal‘s Branded Content and Production Coordinator, Holly Villagra, tells me.

“So you set the alarms for 5 am, get your running shoes on, and do all these tasks, only to completely burn out the week after.” When there isn’t a ‘middle-ground’ to challenges like these, Holly says we find ourselves being flung between extremes. We hit level 10 productivity mode, and then inevitably wind up burning out and feeling like a failure.

Lara Daly, Fashion Journal‘s Features Editor, has a similar mindset. “It’s giving competitive restriction, it’s giving productivity rat race… everyone should just read a book or something,” she says. “Personally, it’s not the vibe I’m taking into spring. We’ve been locked in all winter, I’m ready to see some sunshine and cancel some Pilates classes to drink Aperol Spritz.”

I’m with her. I want my to spend my leisure time discovering new recipes out of the pure fun of it, not because I’m thinking about my protein intake. I want to stumble across new hobbies and lose track of time, not hate myself for missing my daily step goal. I want to spend the next three months figuring out how to clock off from my work day and stay clocked off. As Holly summed it up: “I want be locked out.”

For more on doing nothing, head here.