RAoK 101

I'll be honest.  I've been a bit rubbish at doing this every single day.  For a while I felt quite bad about missing a couple of days and then trying to make the missed RAoKs up again.

I wasn't really sure about whether to count some of the RAoKs I was doing.  It didn't seem quite right that every time I struggled for something nice to do, I considered giving up my seat on the train just so that I could tick something off on a list.  As much as I love ticking things off on lists, when that becomes the main motivation for doing something nice, I know I'm not doing it quite right.

And to be fair, I spend a lot of my time on trains.  My commute to and from work is a mind-numbing hour and forty minutes each way.  I get up at five-thirty, and often don't get home before eight.  Then I need to eat dinner and get an early night ready for the next day.  Most of my RAoKing opportunities are related to trains and their seats.

And what about the nice things I sometimes do without a second thought?  If I smile at someone or hold the door open for someone, that really doesn't take much effort and I generally do it anyway.  At what point does a RAoK take enough effort to be considered a RAoK? 

And even if it's something that I have to make quite a lot of effort for, but it's something I would have done without this challenge (such as giving up my time for the Hoja Project *cough*cough* *clickthislink*) because it's important to me, does it count?  Or should I only count things that I wouldn't have thought of doing otherwise?

I'm a secondary school Maths teacher.  More specifically, I'm a secondary school Maths supply teacher.  This means in theory (though I'm on long term supply) I'm only really paid to turn up.  So does making an effort to give quality feedback to the students count, when technically I only really have to do the bare minimum?  But there is no way I would do the bare minimum if I could give more than that, so surely that doesn't count does it?

So I found myself trying to hit this grey area between "this is no effort and I'd do it anyway" and "I'm only doing this RAoK so I can complete the challenge and it's really not very satisfying as a result".  And then about 40 days ago I gave up worrying about it.

I post some (or most?) but not all of the RAoKs I perform on Twitter, and I don't do them every day.  Because it's nice to share some nice things I've done for people, and it's also nice to just feel good about doing something nice and then not tell anyone about it.

I'm not RAoKing every day because I don't want to feel like I'm forcing myself to do something, but I am RAoKing significantly more than last year, and in making more of a conscious effort I think I've become more aware of people around me.

Yesterday in the park we saw a man trying to look into a litter bin so I asked him if he'd lost something.  He said he'd lost his glasses and he thought he might have dropped them in the bin with his rubbish.

We couldn't help him.  But it was nice to ask.

58 days in

I'm horrible about keeping up with the blog. And since I haven't posted in soooo very long, I'm not going to try and list every single RAoK I've done since my last post (back in January, I believe). However, I will take a minute to let you know what my favorite few have been over the past few weeks...

-Remembering the guards at the gate. Every day I have to go onto Fort Polk--an army post. That's were I work. And, typically the guards work regular shifts. So, when time permits, I try to have a short chat with them. This has been really cool because as weeks have progressed, and I see the guard again, I get to ask them about things we've discussed in the past. And I think it means a lot to them.

-Mailing coupons for diapers to a friend with a baby. I know kids can be expensive, so I've started clipping coupons for people I know can use them. I'm not sure if they actually do...but after I have a few saved up, I write them a friendly note and include the coupon for baby stuff.

-Writing an encouraging letter to a facebook friend. Mind you, this is a friend from high school. I think we are only friends on facebook because we went to school together and graduated in the same class. We weren't even close friends back in high school. Anyway, I saw a status update that said she was nervous about starting her new job. I just started my new job, so I knew how she felt. I sent her a message of encouragement and she seemed really pleased.

-We have penny jars at gas station counters. Essentially, it is where people leave their pennies so the next person can use them if they are short a few cents...rather than break a larger coin or dollar. So, anyway, I've been trying to leave my change. Even larger coins like nickles and dimes.

Anyway, that's a few of my favorites. I don't think I've been quite as creative as the others. Maybe I should take some of their ideas and use them over the next few days!!!

Happy RAoKing everyone! And I'll try to update more often from now on!!

Emily xo.

We continue...

Well, it seems as though raok365 is going well, and I know I am having a blast doing it! Vixie, Phil and I are all posting our raoks pretty regularly over on Twitter - a selection of recent raoks from us include....

* Hiding money on a café table for your waitress to find.

* Leaving a surprise gift for baby twin girls.

* Writing a letter to praise excellent service.

*Lots of charity donations.

* Sending flowers.

* Picking up a beer bottle rolling around the top deck of the 41 bus, and putting in a bin when I got off.

* Inspiring someone else to raok!

* Stocking the break room fridge.

* Being a kitchen fairy and making a friend's kitchen look awesome.

As well as lots of general niceness and helpfulness!

To keep up with our raoking, we tweet using the hashtag #raok365. :-)

Have a fantastic day!

Cxx

Happy Reading!

I don't know what inspired me to do this, but I wrote a message (in pencil) on page 180 of my library book for the next reader:

"You are the light at the end of the tunnel" (and I underlined the word, you).

Happy Weekend!

And the RAoKing continues. I'm being pretty good at doing something every day, although sometimes it can be a bit last minute (hello, 14 hour work day the other day!), and I'm still really enjoying it. I'm also looking forward to getting together with Vixie soon to compare notes and maybe plan some things together...

RAoK #6: sent an email to a company I admire, just thanking them for what they do.

RAoK #7: left some yummy biscuits in the school secretaries' pigeonhole, so they could have something yummy with their afternoon tea.

RAoK #8: helped a lady get her buggy up the stairs at the underground stop.

RAoK #9: sent a book and a note to a beautiful lady.

RAoK #10: RAoKed a RAoKer, with a book. Oh, and sent a sweet baby girl a book.

RAoK #11: put a copy of 'Join Me' in a colleague's pigeonhole.

RAoK #12: bought the next round for two guys in a bar (bless them, they were so sweet and surprised!).

RAoK #13: What else but Haiti? Made a donation to the World Food Project.

RAoK #14: there's a collector at one of my local tube stops, who everyone tends to zoom past. I stopped to chat with him and gave him some money (this also led to me losing Aksinia and Emer on the train, but that's another story!).

RAoK #15: in the pub we go to each Friday after work, there's a business card bowl, where you can pick up the pub's details. Now there's also a hudden five-pound-note. I always think five pounds is the ideal amount to find - enough to buy something...not so big that you'd necessarily hand it in!

RAoK on, lovelies!

Cxx

Hello!

Lovely to see you looking so well!

Unfortunately, I have not been my ol' tip-top self of late, but that hasn't stopped me from RAoKing! Here's what I have done so far:

RAoK #1 - posting chocolate coins and Happy New Year messages to all my neighbours.
RAoK #2 - bought a random person a gift from their Amazon Wishlist.
RAoK #3 - including an extra special extra gift when sending out a parcel.
RAoK #4 - hugging everyone who works in my building (perhaps that's why I'm all ill...)
RAoK #5 - sending a letter of praise and some sweeties to the AA man who helped my silly friend when he got locked out of his car.
RAoK #6 - going into work on snow day when everyone else was out playing in the snow!
RAoK #7 - signing up to an online mentoring service.
RAoK #8 - donating to a JustGiving page.
RAoK #9 - sending an unexpected present to someone.

I hope not to take so long in updating next time :)

Happy RAoKing!

Vixie xx

Annnnd...here I am! Sorry about the late update! I've been busy with the holidays--traveling and working!

Anyway, I've been keeping track of the RAoKs in a little diary that I had laying around...so let me see if I can update you all on what I've done. The first week of the year I was in Alabama visiting my family. They live in the country and we usually stay around their houses and don't really go out. So, some of my RAoKs were for my family members who I don't see all that often.

January 1: okay...to be honest I didn't do anything that day. I was with my family and they live in the middle of nowhere. Literally. We didn't even leave the house all day. Now, I did explain my RAoK goals to my family and they got all excited about it. A few of them have started doing RAoKs as well!! Anyway, I have to make up one for this day.

January 2: I sent a nice letter in the mail to a random person I picked from the phone book.

January 3: Although not a random person, I spent 2 hours with my lonely grandmother. She has dementia and needs the company. It's hard to be around her for that long because we end up having the same conversations over and over...but I needed to do that.

January 4: While in the bookstore, I helped a woman whose son had just knocked over a whole shelf of books. Others were just standing around watching...

January 5: This is another family one...I was supposed to leave Alabama and go home this day, but my 10 year old cousin really wanted me to stay and watch her basketball game. So, I surprised her by staying the extra night, going to her game, and taking her out for pizza afterward.

January 6: Although this isn't huge, I was a really nice motorist. I spent the whole day driving back to Louisiana. So, I let people pass me easily, I didn't get mad and cuss when others were annoying drivers, I let people into lanes, and I let others go ahead of me at the gas pump.

January 7: It was a really cold day yesterday...and also really rainy. So, I wrote the postman a nice thank-you card and put some hand warmers in the letter for him.