The library

Kind things you can actually do

Every one of these is specific enough to do today. No grand gestures, no fundraising page, nothing that needs a free weekend.

Know roughly what is going on but not what to search for? Start from a situation — fourteen short lists of what actually helps, from somebody new on the street to somebody having the worst year of their life.

Showing 1–30 of 293 ideas

• Leave the accessible toilet alone

  It is not the spare one when there is a queue. For some people it is the only one in the building.

  5 minutesFreeA stranger2 people did this

• Read the form out loud for someone

  Around one in six adults reads below the level most official forms are written at.

  Half an hourFreeA neighbor

• Keep sending the birthday card after the divorce

  Children lose half their extended family in a separation, usually without anyone deciding that should happen.

  5 minutesUnder $10A friend

• Read the book your teenager is reading

  It gives you a subject that is not school, not their friends and not anything they have to defend.

  OngoingUnder $10A friend

• Give money without making it a loan

  A loan between friends creates a debt that outlasts the need. A gift, clearly stated, does not.

  5 minutesMore than $10A friend

• Buy two and leave one

  Suspended coffees, paid-forward meals and school-fund top-ups exist. Most people have never noticed the option.

  5 minutesUnder $10A stranger

• Wait for someone who stammers

  Finishing the sentence of someone who stammers is meant to help and does the opposite every time.

  5 minutesFreeA stranger

• Keep including the person whose language it is not

  Groups drift back into the majority language within minutes, and the one person left out never says anything.

  5 minutesFreeA stranger1 person did this

• Find the subscriptions someone forgot about

  Most households pay for several things nobody uses. Finding them is an hour's work and a permanent saving.

  An afternoonFreeA friend

• Buy from the list rather than guessing

  Food banks and shelters publish exactly what they are short of. Donations that ignore it create sorting work.

  Half an hourUnder $10A stranger

• Offer somewhere quiet without making it a thing

  Loud rooms are genuinely painful for some people, and asking for quiet in a group is socially expensive.

  5 minutesFreeA friend

• Give the good version away, not the worn-out one

  Charity shops and refuges throw away an enormous amount of what is donated because it was not really a gift.

  Half an hourFreeA stranger

• Offer to take another child as well

  You are already doing the trip. One more in the car is the cheapest help a parent can give another parent.

  Half an hourFreeA neighbor1 person did this

• Let a child finish the sentence

  Adults complete children's sentences constantly, and the child learns that their version was not worth waiting for.

  5 minutesFreeA friend1 person did this

• Notice who eats lunch at their desk every day

  It is sometimes a preference and often the visible end of being outside every group in the building.

  Half an hourFreeA stranger

• Make leaving early unremarkable

  Chronic illness, anxiety and pain all mean sometimes going home. The hard part is having to explain in front of everyone.

  5 minutesFreeA friend

• Ask something other than where they are from

  For anyone who looks or sounds different, it is the first question of every conversation, forever.

  5 minutesFreeA stranger

• Go to the thing even though it is dull

  The assembly, the match, the recital. Children scan the audience, and they are counting.

  An afternoonFreeA friend

• Say something when the room lets it pass

  A remark lands, everyone pretends not to have heard, and the target learns exactly who is in the room.

  5 minutesFreeA stranger

• Tip in cash where the card tip may not reach them

  Card tips are sometimes pooled, taxed through payroll or partly retained. Cash usually goes to the person.

  5 minutesUnder $10A stranger

• Ask what they did before they came here

  A great many people doing low-paid work were engineers, doctors or teachers somewhere their qualifications do not count.

  5 minutesFreeA stranger

• Learn the names of your child's friends

  Knowing who is who turns 'how was school' into a conversation that can actually go somewhere.

  5 minutesFreeA friend

• Buy the thing they would never buy themselves

  People under financial pressure cut the small pleasures first, and those are the ones that hold a life together.

  5 minutesMore than $10A friend

• Let a child overhear you praising them

  Praise reported to a third party is believed in a way that praise delivered directly is not.

  5 minutesFreeA friend

• Tell a freelancer what the going rate is

  People new to freelancing price from fear. One honest number from someone established resets it permanently.

  5 minutesFreeA friend

• Go to the celebration that is not yours

  Turning up to somebody else's festival, service or national day is a bigger gesture than it costs you.

  An afternoonFreeA neighbor

• Caption the video you posted

  Captions serve deaf viewers, people in loud places, and anyone watching with the sound off — which is most people.

  Half an hourFreeA stranger

• Pay the small invoice the day it arrives

  Late payment is the main reason small suppliers fail. Paying on receipt costs you nothing and can matter enormously.

  5 minutesFreeA stranger

• Never park across a dropped curb

  A car over a dropped curb can strand a wheelchair user on the wrong side of a road with no other crossing.

  5 minutesFreeA stranger

• Look, the tenth time they ask

  A child asking you to watch the same trick again is asking whether they are still interesting to you.

  5 minutesFreeA friend