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Kind things to do for a stranger

For someone you will probably never see again, or will see constantly and never know. No history to draw on, which makes these the most nerve-wracking and often the most memorable.

Showing 61–90 of 113 ideas

• Take the other end of the pushchair

  Stations without lifts turn a pushchair into a trap. One person taking the front end solves it in twenty seconds.

  5 minutesFreeA stranger

• Answer the most junior person first

  Inboxes are triaged by seniority without anyone deciding to. Reversing it once a day costs you nothing.

  5 minutesFreeA stranger

• Hand back what the machine gave you by mistake

  Money left in a cash machine or an overpaid change is someone's actual money, and they will notice.

  5 minutesFreeA stranger

• Decline to join the pile-on

  The hundredth reply telling someone they are wrong adds nothing except to the total weight landing on one person.

  5 minutesFreeA stranger

• Leave the public toilet better than you found it

  Someone cleans that room several times a day. Thirty seconds of tidying is the most direct help you can give a stranger.

  5 minutesFreeA stranger

• Walk a lost person to the corner

  Directions are forgotten by the second turn. Walking someone to the point where they can see it is what works.

  5 minutesFreeA stranger

• Warn someone about the ticket they are about to get

  Thirty seconds of effort saves a stranger sixty pounds they very possibly cannot spare.

  5 minutesFreeA stranger

• Take the notes nobody volunteered for

  The admin of a meeting reliably falls to the same people. Doing it once, deliberately, breaks a pattern everybody has noticed.

  Half an hourFreeA stranger

• Write down whether a place was actually accessible

  Step-free claims are frequently wrong, and disabled people plan whole days around information nobody has verified.

  5 minutesFreeA stranger

• Tell the driver you are genuinely not in a hurry

  Taxi and delivery drivers assume every passenger wants speed. Saying otherwise removes a pressure they carry all day.

  5 minutesFreeA stranger

• Copy their manager on the thank you

  A private thank you is kind. The same words with their manager copied in can change how someone's year is assessed.

  5 minutesFreeA stranger

• Ask what they would make if you let them

  People who make things all day rarely get asked their opinion by the people they make them for.

  5 minutesUnder $10A stranger

• Stay with someone who has fallen

  Most people who fall in public are surrounded by people who assume someone else is handling it.

  Half an hourFreeA stranger

• Talk to the person on the door

  Security staff stand in one place for twelve hours while thousands of people walk past without making eye contact.

  5 minutesFreeA stranger

• Wave through the person with three things

  You have a full trolley and eleven minutes of unpacking ahead. They have a sandwich and a train to catch.

  5 minutesFreeA stranger

• Cover the few pounds someone is short at the till

  Being short at a checkout with a queue behind you is a small public humiliation, and it is trivially preventable.

  5 minutesUnder $10A stranger

• Sit with whoever started this week

  New starters eat alone for longer than anyone realizes, and decide how they feel about a place in the first fortnight.

  Half an hourFreeA stranger

• Vouch for someone you have only met online

  People build real reputations in communities that are invisible to employers. Saying so out loud transfers it.

  5 minutesFreeA stranger

• Write up the process nobody has written up

  Renewing a visa, appealing a decision, navigating a diagnosis. Somebody is about to do it with no map.

  An afternoonFreeA stranger

• Say something kind to a parent having a bad time

  A toddler melting down in public means a parent convinced that everyone is judging them. Usually everyone is sympathetic and silent.

  5 minutesFreeA stranger

• Offer to take the photo for the group

  Someone is always missing from the picture, and it is usually the person who organized the trip.

  5 minutesFreeA stranger

• Pay the small place in cash

  Card fees take two to three per cent from a business whose margin may be five. Cash is a quiet discount you can choose to give.

  5 minutesFreeA stranger

• Teach six people the thing you can do

  Most useful skills are held by people who do not think of themselves as qualified to teach them.

  An afternoonUnder $10A stranger

• Give a local group one evening

  Small charities and clubs cannot afford the professional help they need, and the gap is usually one evening wide.

  An afternoonFreeA stranger

• Hold the door a few seconds longer

  The standard distance for holding a door is about two seconds. Extending it to six costs nothing and is noticed every time.

  5 minutesFreeA stranger

• Offer to carry the heavy thing

  Someone is struggling with a suitcase, a box or shopping. Most people look away rather than risk offering.

  5 minutesFreeA stranger

• Bring the new person into the group conversation

  A circle of people talking is physically closed. Turning your body is the whole mechanism for opening it.

  5 minutesFreeA stranger

• Name the person when the feedback is good

  Complaints always name the individual. Praise almost always says 'the staff', which is unusable by a manager.

  5 minutesFreeA stranger

• Answer the question you just solved, publicly

  You spent two hours fixing something. The forum thread that nearly helped you has no answer on it.

  5 minutesFreeA stranger

• Find out who is not allowed to accept tips

  Many of the people who help you most are barred from taking money. Something small they can accept works instead.

  5 minutesUnder $10A stranger