When I bought the car it came with the BMW performance short shifter kit in the trunk. I'm generally skeptical of just throwing in a shorter lever, but I did feel like I was punching the dashboard on the 1/3/5 shift. The taller ZHP knob that the car came with probably doesn't help there. For $0.00 I figured it was worth a try.
Part number is 25110430357 which gets you the shorter lever, new bushing+circlip, and the alcantara boot and knob. My kit didn't have the knob and I wasn't planing on using it or the new boot anyway.
I followed the DIY here:
https://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=781525
Didn't take me more than an hour or so. The most difficult part is removing/reinstalling the circlip. Despite all my best efforts the old circlip shot under the car somewhere. While installing the new circlip I did tie some fishing line around it so I didn't lose it - worked really well.
I did this in a fit of productivity and forgot to take pictures of the progress, but here is the final result. I was worried about it looking too stubby, but I don't think that's the case:
Time will tell how I feel about it.
This is also the debut of the Dynavin headunit that came with the car. I have mixed feelings about it. It's a really nice piece of hardware that updates the car usefully - bluetooth+rearview camera. If it were up to me I think I'd retrofit iDrive though... or just find a car with iDrive already. But, it's there and it's working really well so I'm not planning on changing it anytime soon.
I also just ordered a set of M3 front control arms, although I have a lot of other projects lined up on other cars and around the house before I get around to installing those....