Spring has got me in the mood to repent!

Take cold showers in the morning.  Don’t do it all at once.  Start with a warm shower, and then turn down the temperature for about 30 seconds before getting out. Thanks to Daily Stoic for this idea.  Feeling the stoicism groove here!

Help increase the meaning of my nightly prayer with my wife by discussing beforehand the things we want to pray for.  In addition to the normal tendencies towards mechanized prayers, I also get self-conscious during prayers where others are listening in or participating with me.  By talking about things that are important to us before hand, we can hopefully overcome some of those challenges, and make our nightly prayer something we appreciate more.

Impose a semi-formal structure on my free Saturdays with daughter, Chloe.  Saturdays are the one day I have at home with Jenni and Chloe, and Jenni needs some time to herself.  I need to pick up the slack and take care of baby!  But these last few weeks, I have gotten super stressed out.  She requires so much attention!  I need to find activities we can both enjoy doing together.  I already found one: Chloe loves to dance with daddy, so we put on a Youtube channel (so far we like Piano Guys and Peter Hollens) and we dance!  I think finding an outdoor activity would be good too.  I also want to find a way to work in some chores, but I need to find a way to keep baby happy while doing them.

Talk to people on my commute to and from work instead of pulling out your phone.  I have been riding this bus for over two years.  I know the faces of some of these people, and yet I have never talked to them.  I need to stop that!  I have one friend I have made so far.  We talk about books and kids and work.  I will branch out a bit more by always greeting the person next to me in line as I walk up.  I will also say hi to the person across from me or sitting next to me on the bus.

Limit Facebook time at work by turning off my phone.  I did this the other day just to conserve the battery, and it became suddenly easy to resist the pull to check my phone!  A little libertarian paternalism goes a long way toward killing mindless habits.  I will also fill in the need to fill empty spaces by bookmarking journals like Nature and Science so I can always have something productive to read instead.

Skype with a friend every Saturday morning.  I have let too many relationships fall by the wayside.  If you want to keep them, you have to reach out!  Facebook makes it too easy to be complacent, and eventually you haven’t talked to them for a year or more.