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Kind things you can do in five minutes

Nobody needs a free afternoon to be kind. These take about as long as waiting for a kettle, and most of them happen in the gaps of a day you were having anyway. If you have been meaning to do something and keep not getting to it, start here.

Showing 31–60 of 183 ideas

• Put the real details in the invitation

  How long, how far to walk, whether there is seating. Missing details mean somebody has to ring and ask.

  5 minutesFreeA friend

• Buy the work rather than praising it

  Artists, writers and makers get a great deal of encouragement and very little income. One is a great deal more useful.

  5 minutesMore than $10A friend

• Ask before you help, then do what they say

  Grabbing a wheelchair or an arm without asking is both dangerous and startlingly common.

  5 minutesFreeA stranger

• Move your bin off the pavement

  Bins, bikes and parked cars narrow pavements to the point where a wheelchair has to go into the road.

  5 minutesFreeA neighbor

• Say keep the change before they count it

  A small overpayment is worth more as a decision you announce than as coins you leave behind.

  5 minutesUnder $10A stranger

• Tell a young person about your own failure

  Young people assume competent adults were always competent, which makes their own struggle feel disqualifying.

  5 minutesFreeA friend

• Quietly pay for a child's kit

  The boots, the instrument, the trip. Children drop out of things because of cost, and nobody is told why.

  5 minutesMore than $10A neighbor

• Move your trolley out of the aisle

  A blocked aisle is an inconvenience to most people and an impassable wall to a wheelchair or a scooter.

  5 minutesFreeA stranger

• Write down the thing a child said

  Every parent believes they will remember. Almost none do, and the exact words are what disappear first.

  5 minutesFreeA friend

• Tell a teacher what they did for your child

  Teachers hear from parents almost exclusively about problems. Specific praise is rare enough to be kept for years.

  5 minutesFreeA stranger

• Find a chair before anyone asks

  Standing is the hidden barrier at parties, queues and exhibitions, and asking for a seat means explaining why.

  5 minutesFreeA friend

• Praise the effort where the result was bad

  A young person who worked hard and failed will be told the result was disappointing by everyone else.

  5 minutesFreeA friend1 person did this

• Help with the deposit, not the rent

  A one-off lump unlocks a situation. Ongoing help postpones one, and is far harder to stop.

  5 minutesMore than $10A friend

• Turn the one-off donation into a standing order

  Charities can plan against regular income and cannot plan against appeals. Five pounds monthly beats sixty at Christmas.

  5 minutesMore than $10A stranger

• Hand over your good tradesperson

  The reliable plumber, the honest garage, the dentist taking patients. Newcomers pay a premium for not knowing.

  5 minutesFreeA neighbor

• Leave credit on the machine behind you

  A parking meter, a laundry card, a photo booth. The next person gets a small unearned piece of luck.

  5 minutesFreeA stranger

• Talk to the child who is not performing

  At any family gathering one child holds the room and another is under the table with a book.

  5 minutesFreeA friend

• Split the bill by what people can actually pay

  Dividing equally is simple and quietly excludes whoever ordered the cheapest thing for a reason.

  5 minutesUnder $10A friend

• Put it back exactly where it was

  In the home of a blind or partially sighted person, a tidied object is a lost object.

  5 minutesFreeA friend

• Give one instruction at a time

  Stacked instructions fail for anyone tired, anxious, learning the language or processing differently.

  5 minutesFreeA stranger

• Believe someone about their own symptoms

  People with invisible illness spend years being doubted, most often by people who mean well.

  5 minutesFreeA friend

• Be the second person to volunteer

  The first person to speak up takes all the risk. The second one makes it safe for everyone after.

  5 minutesFreeA stranger

• Say plainly that you are glad they came

  Anyone new spends months privately unsure whether they are wanted or merely tolerated. One sentence settles it.

  5 minutesFreeA stranger

• Tell someone what you actually earn

  Pay secrecy is maintained by people like you staying quiet, and it costs the people with least information the most.

  5 minutesFreeA friend

• Ask what the hardest part actually is

  We assume we know which part of someone's situation is worst, and we are usually wrong.

  5 minutesFreeA friend

• Tell a carer what you noticed

  Carers watch someone decline daily and lose sight of who they were. An outsider's observation gives that back.

  5 minutesFreeA caregiver

• Add alt text to your images

  An image without a description is a blank space to anyone using a screen reader. Writing one takes twenty seconds.

  5 minutesFreeA stranger

• Ask again the person who always says no

  People who decline every invitation are usually not uninterested. Often they are waiting to be asked a fourth time.

  5 minutesFreeA neighbor

• Return the thing you have had for two years

  Everybody is holding something borrowed and mildly embarrassing. Giving it back is easier than the story you have built around it.

  5 minutesFreeA neighbor

• Say the spare room is available before they need it

  People leaving bad situations often have nowhere to go for two nights, and cannot bring themselves to ask.

  5 minutesFreeA friend1 person did this