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.
323 ideas. Try a situation — grief, new baby, neighbor, hospital.
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 181–210 of 323 ideas
Learn the dog's name first, then the owner's
The dog is the easiest introduction on any street, and the one conversation nobody finds intrusive.
5 minutesFreeA neighbor
Not rated yet
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
Not rated yet
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
Not rated yet
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
Not rated yet
Ask an older person to teach you something
Being useful is the thing most often lost in older age. Being taught is a better gift than being helped.
An afternoonUnder $10A neighbor
Not rated yet
Become a regular somewhere on purpose
Being known by name in one place is the cheapest antidote there is to feeling like a stranger where you live.
OngoingUnder $10A neighbor
Not rated yet
Remember the date everyone else forgot
The anniversary of a death or a miscarriage is carried privately by one or two people and acknowledged by nobody.
5 minutesFreeA friend
Not rated yet
Ask what they wish people would stop saying
Everyone going through something hard has a list of well-meant phrases that make it worse. Nobody ever asks.
5 minutesFreeA friend
Not rated yet
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
Not rated yet
Go to the appointment as a second pair of ears
People retain very little of what a doctor says, especially when the news is bad or the room is rushed.
An afternoonFreeA neighbor
Not rated yet
Ask an older person what they used to do
Retired people are asked about their health and their grandchildren. Almost nobody asks what they were good at.
Half an hourFreeA neighbor
Not rated yet
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
Not rated yet
Say something specific about their garden
Someone is doing that for nobody's benefit but the street's, and almost certainly has never been told it was noticed.
5 minutesFreeA neighbor
Not rated yet
Follow up on the thing they were dreading
Ask about the interview, the scan, the difficult conversation — on the day it actually happens.
5 minutesFreeA friend
Not rated yet
Keep the thing they told you
Being told something in confidence is the most ordinary trust there is, and it is broken casually all the time.
OngoingFreeA friend
Not rated yet
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
Not rated yet
Have a conversation with no illness in it
A carer's entire social life becomes updates about someone else's health. Talking about anything else is a holiday.
Half an hourFreeA caregiver
Not rated yet
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
Not rated yet
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
Not rated yet
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
Not rated yet
Bring food in a container they never have to return
A borrowed dish is a small ongoing debt. Food in something disposable is a gift with no strings at all.
Half an hourUnder $10A caregiver
Not rated yet
Knock, rather than posting a leaflet
Leaflets reach people who are already connected. The person most worth inviting needs someone at the door.
Half an hourFreeA neighbor
Not rated yet
Go to the small thing nobody else will
The exhibition, the first gig, the talk to nine people. Attendance at the small things is what people remember.
An afternoonUnder $10A friend
Not rated yet
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
Not rated yet
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
Not rated yet
Cover so the carer can see a doctor themselves
Carers routinely postpone their own health appointments for years because there is nobody to take over.
An afternoonFreeA caregiver
Not rated yet
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
Not rated yet
Diarise the six-month mark
After a death everyone appears for a fortnight and then vanishes. Month six is when the house is quietest.
5 minutesFreeA friend
Not rated yet
Turn up for the move
Helping someone move is the least fun and most remembered favor in the entire catalogue of friendship.
An afternoonFreeA friend
Not rated yet
Share it rather than commenting on it
A comment reaches the person. A share reaches the audience they are actually trying to find.
5 minutesFreeA friend
Not rated yet