Karen X Cheng left Microsoft’s Office team with a farewell resignation video. In her first year away from Microsoft she taught herself to dance, creating a viral video of her daily progress. The inspiring video became so popular that Cheng was able to turn the idea into a project: 100. The site is an open invite for anyone to participate in a 100-day challenge to get better at something with practice, while documenting it with short daily video clips. 100 attracted 4,700 people to its waiting list ahead of the launch in November, and thousands of people are now recording their daily progress for all to see.

100 days, 100 videos

There are people learning to unicycle, handstand, create time-lapse videos, and even teach their dogs a new trick. Cheng teamed up with Finbarr Taylor to create the site, and each daily video is cropped to 10 seconds and automatically plays when you hover over it. There’s something fascinating, even inspiring, about watching a time-lapse of a random person achieving their goal over 100 days or simply getting better at something. "Everyone starts a beginner," says Cheng. "When I look back at old videos of my dancing - they're so bad, I cringe. But I also feel something else: woah. I've come a long way."

It’s that progress that 100 is aiming to capture and share. It’s a sort of mix of Vine and YouTube, with a section where people can also participate and create how to video guides. Cheng has even created her own tutorial on how to learn the arm wave. At the start of the year it’s often time for New Year’s resolutions. Whether it’s promising to shed a few pounds or simply learn a new trick, 100 acts as a public monitor for your own progress over 100 days. If you’re not interested in participating and recording videos every day, it’s certainly a unique source of endless inspiration.