Posted on: November 15, 2023
Whether it’s a smile from someone during a stressful commute home, a chat with a friendly stranger when you’re locked out of your flat, or bonding via food or a cuppa over the garden wall, some of your simple connections have inspired today’s post.
We at House of Books and Friends have collated 20 easy acts of kindness that you can implement into your week to really make someone’s day. Who knows, maybe your gesture will have such an impact that someone will submit a ‘Connection Counts’ form about you?!
- Add a compliment into an everyday transaction. Whilst you are waiting for your coffee? Before you hang up the phone?
- Organise to meet up with a friend that you haven’t seen in a while. Even if just for an hour, it can really show someone you are thinking about them.
- Smile at a stranger or say hello to people you may pass every day but have never spoken to before.
- Buy a token for our ‘Pay It Forward’ coffee scheme.
- Catch a neighbour for a chat or bake them something to pop on the doorstep. We suggest your favourite sweet treat, or a family recipe meaningful to you.
- Send someone a handwritten note or an anonymous, encouraging post-it.
- Sit on our Chatty Café table.
- Ask someone a question about themselves. It’s a great way to break down boundaries and can make someone feel validated and important.
- Sign up to do voluntary work in your local community. Volunteer Centre Manchester is a great website both for registering your interest in volunteering, and for finding organisations that need or work with volunteers across a range of skill sets.
- Look after people in the service industry – make your plumber a coffee! Say thank you to your bus-driver!
- Make someone a Spotify playlist, or a list of books or tv shows you recommend that you think they’ll enjoy.
- Ask someone what their favourite book, movie, or album is and take the time to listen to it.
- Have a conversation with someone who is experiencing homelessness.
- Call or message a friend on social media to let them know you are there for them. Again, even better if this is someone you have not reached out to in a while, and it takes no time at all.
- Buy a book for our current charity Learning Partnerships, using our ‘Give a Book Tree’.
- Lend someone your favourite book. Or books 😉
- Share a happy/funny memory or old photo with a loved one. We love a cringy selfie from Year 9, or a cute baby pic.
- Sign a petition for a cause that means something to you or someone you care about.
- Let someone go in front of you in a queue for lunch or groceries.
- Be an active listener when in conversation with others.
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