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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 121–150 of 183 ideas

• Tell someone what they taught you years ago

  People who shaped how you work almost never find out. A message years later lands harder than one at the time.

  5 minutesFreeA friend

• Offer to water while they are away

  Offering before a holiday is worth far more than offering after. It also quietly tells a burglar the house is occupied.

  5 minutesFreeA neighbor

• Invite the whole household, not just the one you know

  Partners and teenagers of a newcomer are often more isolated than the person who has the job or the class.

  5 minutesFreeA neighbor

• 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

• Send someone a photo of themselves from years ago

  Everybody has pictures of other people sitting unseen on a hard drive. The subject has usually never seen them.

  5 minutesFreeA friend

• Be the one who actually books it

  Everyone agrees they should meet up. Groups fail at the step where somebody names a date and holds it.

  5 minutesFreeA friend

• Introduce two neighbors who should know each other

  You often know two people on the same street who would be useful or good company to each other, and who have never spoken.

  5 minutesFreeA neighbor

• Give the introduction, not the advice

  When a friend is stuck, the name of someone who has done it is worth more than your opinion about it.

  5 minutesFreeA friend

• Slow down without announcing it

  Matching someone's pace is easy. Doing it without commenting on it is what preserves their dignity.

  5 minutesFreeA neighbor

• Quietly pay for the thing they canceled

  Money is the first thing to go in a crisis, and the cancellations are small, private and cumulatively demoralising.

  5 minutesMore than $10A friend

• 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

• Tell a parent something good about their child

  Parents hear from school when there is a problem. Positive observations from another adult are rare and enormously reassuring.

  5 minutesFreeA friend

• 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

• Take the parcel in, and say so straight away

  Taking a delivery in is common. Telling them immediately is what stops it being a small anxiety in someone's evening.

  5 minutesFreeA neighbor

• Apologize without explaining yourself

  Most apologies contain a defense, which converts them into an argument the other person now has to have.

  5 minutesFreeA friend

• Say that you do not know what to say

  Most people say nothing at all because they are waiting to think of the right thing. There isn't one.

  5 minutesFreeA friend

• 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

• Let someone pay for you

  Always insisting on paying can be a way of staying the one who gives. Accepting is its own kindness.

  5 minutesFreeA friend

• Watch the empty house on your street

  Probate and repossession leave houses empty for months. A neighbor noticing is usually the only security they have.

  5 minutesFreeA neighbor

• 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

• Tell someone their free thing was useful

  People maintaining open resources get bug reports and complaints. They almost never hear that it worked.

  5 minutesFreeA stranger

• Say out loud that it is not their fault

  Front-line staff absorb anger for decisions made by people the customer will never meet.

  5 minutesFreeA stranger

• Stack it the way they would

  Clearing your table is common. Stacking it the way the person collecting it actually needs is rarer and more useful.

  5 minutesFreeA stranger

• Take the photograph nobody is taking

  In the last months of an illness, families stop taking pictures. Afterwards those are the ones they want most.

  5 minutesFreeA friend

• Use the dead person's name

  People avoid the name to protect the grieving. The effect is that the person disappears from every conversation.

  5 minutesFreeA friend

• Find out which house has the new baby

  New parents are at home, awake at odd hours, and more isolated than anyone assumes. A knock is worth more at week six than week one.

  5 minutesFreeA neighbor

• Say whose idea it actually was

  Ideas get repeated by louder people and absorbed by the room. Ten words of attribution puts it back where it belongs.

  5 minutesFreeA stranger

• Ask the second question

  Most conversations stop at the first answer. The interesting part is one question further in, and almost nobody goes.

  5 minutesFreeA friend