Progress is not linear and and it is entirely normal to have periods when your current drawings look worse than your previous ones. As long as you're staying focused and genuinely doing your best to estimate convergences and giving each line the attention it deserves, I do not think you are creating bad habits, but even if you are, 250 boxes will be a small fraction of all the future lines and boxes you will draw, so you'll have plenty of time to course correct. (and it will be easier to course correct if you have good feedback, which will be easier to get if you complete the whole challenge)

That being said, I often find that with repetetive tasks like this it is hard to maintain the level of focus I had in the beginning when the task was new, so if you notice drop in quality it's useful to use that as a reminder to stay focused and not get complacent. Just remember that focus doesn't mean stress, it just means attention, and it's normal to have periods of progress followed by temporary backslides. It doesn't mean you're doing anything wrong.

In addition to the points the others have raised, there are two important things to keep in mind:

• Students tend to be anxious, and that leads to their capacity to judge their own work being driven more by fear rather than objective observation of their results (especially early on). Combine this with the fact that they don't yet know exactly what kinds of issues are entirely normal and what is of greater concern, it's just not really a good idea to put a lot of weight on your own assessments. Your only concern should be on applying the instructions to the best of your current ability, rather than judging the merit of that current ability.

• While official critique requires students to only submit when the assigned work is completed, this is both for reasons relating to the feasibility of offering the service at the price point we do, as well as countering the tendencies for the anxiety I referenced above. Our community discord chat server does allow students to post partial work, with channels devoted to each lesson. So while we don't recommend checking in for every page, it's a good way to confirm that you're generally on the right track by having other students take a look.

In moments like this I recommend reviewing Lesson 0 (specifically page 3) to refresh your memory on how this course works and why, as well as the resources that are made available to you, so you don't accidentally neglect to make use of something that could greatly benefit your progress.

Hey! I understand that feeling. I went though the same thing.

I'm still a noob at drawing, but I did notice a simlar trend for musicians. I have been in music for decades and have taught private lessons. When students start practicing seriously, they sometimes say that they feel like they are getting worse. In actuality, they aren't getting worse. Yes, some of the techniques may not be quite right yet, but overall there is improvement. What they are really experiencing is an improvement in listening skills. They are becoming better able to hear what they are doing. And this is what allows for even greater improvement.

It is very possible that you are improving your visual skills and better seeing what you are doing. Stick with it!

In Lesson 0 Uncomfortable goes over the common complaint of learning bad habits. It was talked about in relation to the 50% rule but it also applies here as well. You will develop bad habits, however you will eventually unlearn them; that is just the process of learning. Like you said, it will be graded when you finish, so keep going until it is complete and take the feedback the grader gives. If they do not mark the lesson as complete and assign homework, do the additional boxes assigned with the feeback in your mind while you are doing them. After you complete the 250 box challenge, it will be in your daily warmups from now on, so you will have more time to practice them with the feedback given. Additionally, after a long period of time, if you still feel that your boxes still need working on, you can do the 250 box challenge again and resubmit.

Also, go over the videos and text in the 250 box challenge section and the box section of lesson 1 as needed to refresh your mind on anything you're not 100% on. I've needed to reread and rewatch videos multiple times because sometimes there is a lot thrown at me in a subject I am not super familiar with.