Derailing ZEn?

That's Frosty, a 12 week old Newfoundland / Great Pyrenees and bane to productivity mix.

I have a pretty well oiled machine of a life - I have a routine, I follow it.  I get out of bed, the bed is immediately made.  Laundry is done nightly.  My yard is immaculate with a gorgeous rock garden that I love so very much. 

I have plans and a little internal schedule and my world revolves around that schedule.  You know who doesn't care?  Frosty.

Frosty doesn't give two shits what you'd like her to do as she's living her best life.  Frosty likes to unmake my bed, she likes to steal clothes, she will pull clothes off hangers and chew the straps off of all my tank tops, she is currently working on digging a tunnel to the center of the Earth in the middle of my most amazing rock garden.

That was just her Sunday.  My Sunday was comprised of refolding stacks of clothes that she ran through, filling in a massive hole in my yard, bathing her, completely scrubbing my bathroom after bathing her, cleaning the house after she scooby-doo'd around the hardwoods on the main floor and really cobbling back together some semblance of order in the house.

By the time all that was sorted out, all the things that I thought I was going to do, I didn't have the time or interest to do any of them.
Work out? No
Sit and meditate?  No way
Read my new book?  I don't even know where it is at this point.
Get Ready to kick off a new work week? At this point my hope is just to be fully dressed before leaving for work.
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How do we stay on track when it is so easy to have our plans derailed?  How do I remain nimble in my schedule but maintain my resolve to implement and maintain meaningful change?  It's something I'm really trying to sort out.  

I have a fairly demanding job that first of all requires me to go into an office, look like an adult, and be "on" all day long.  Significant departure from the last decade when I could work from home, not get out of my hello kitty pj's and I could avoid talking to people for extended periods of time. 

When something was compiling or if a process was running, I could tidy up or throw in a load of laundry.  Now, being in the adult world, I am out of my home for 8-10 hours a day.  When I get home I have to clean, cook, sort out homework, catch up with Finn before he goes to bed and by the time all is said and done, it's 10:00 pm ... I'm absolutely exhausted.  

Where is the time to blog, meditate, work out, focus on myself?  It's something I need to sort out otherwise meaningful change is unattainable.

Plan of Attack:
1. Go to bed by 9:00 which is around the same time as Finn
2. Wake up at 5:00 which would give me a few hours to get in a work out and sit for a bit before Finn wakes up
3. Leave work at work ... if I have to go into an office - then my home is for living and focusing on things that inspire me personally 
4. Really invest in my friendships by giving them the proper care and feeding those relationships deserve
5. Commit to doing something for myself each and every day and not feeling guilty for doing so

Frosty needs to be more of an inspiration to me than something that floofs her way into my tight schedule spreading chaos, albeit the cutest / most snuggly chaos you've ever seen.
 
Maybe I need to be more like Frosty - maybe she's the Puppy Zen Master that this household has been desperately in need of.