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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 181–197 of 197 ideas
Ask the carer before you ask about the patient
Every single conversation starts with how the ill person is doing. The carer is asked second, or not at all.
5 minutesFreeA caregiver
Not rated yet
Ask the person crying in public if they are okay
Everyone walks past. The calculation people make — that privacy is kinder — is usually wrong.
5 minutesFreeA stranger
Not rated yet
Be the easy customer at closing time
The last half hour of a shift is when tiny inconveniences decide whether someone gets home on time.
5 minutesFreeA stranger
Not rated yet
Put the courgette glut on the wall
Anyone who grows vegetables ends up with more than they can eat. Most of it is composted rather than offered.
5 minutesFreeA neighbor
Not rated yet
Put a cold box out in a heatwave
Delivery drivers, refuse crews and postal workers do forty-degree days on foot with no realistic way to stop.
5 minutesUnder $10A stranger
Not rated yet
Check on the friend who is visibly fine
Support goes to people who are obviously struggling. The competent ones are assumed not to need any.
5 minutesFreeA friend
Not rated yet
Introduce yourself to the neighbor you only nod at
You have lived beside each other for years and exchanged nods. Neither of you can start the conversation in an emergency.
5 minutesFreeA neighbor
Not rated yet
Leave a note for your mail carrier
The person who walks to your door most days almost never hears from the people who live behind it.
5 minutesFreeA stranger2 people did this
Not rated yet
Bring the trash cans back up
Sixty seconds of your afternoon, and someone comes home to one less thing.
5 minutesFreeA neighbor2 people did this
Not rated yet
Leave quarters at the laundromat
A few dollars in coins, left on the machines, for whoever counted wrong tonight.
5 minutesUnder $10A stranger
Not rated yet
Write the review for the small place
For a business with forty reviews, one more genuinely moves the number. For a chain, it vanishes.
5 minutesFreeA stranger1 person did this
Not rated yet
Ask about the person who died
Grieving people are usually far more afraid of their person being forgotten than of being reminded.
5 minutesFreeA friend
Not rated yet
Learn the name of someone you see every week
There is probably someone you have exchanged a hundred nods with and never once asked.
5 minutesFreeA stranger
Not rated yet
Send a specific memory, not a check-in
"Thinking of you" asks for a reply. A memory just hands someone something.
5 minutesFreeA friend
Not rated yet
Tell someone's manager they were good
Complaints reach managers constantly. Praise almost never does — which is exactly why it carries weight when it arrives.
5 minutesFreeA stranger
Not rated yet
Be the one who says the obvious thing
In most rooms somebody is being talked over and everyone can see it. Saying so out loud costs you one sentence and changes the room.
5 minutesFreeA friend
Not rated yet
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
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