Praying is essential to keep your relationship with God strong. However, with the chaos surrounding us and with our lives getting hectic at times, it can be hard to find time to set aside to pray. When this happens, we can easily end up forgetting about praying for the day or just putting it at the bottom of our to do list. There are many distractions that we need to isolate ourselves from to concentrate. 

 So, what are some reasons we put prayer to the side? 

1. Thoughts – Our minds are constantly on the run, sometimes it is hard to stay concentrated when praying.
2. Noisy environment – Some of us live in a very noisy environment. Whether it is having a packed house to having an active social life, we are usually more focused on what is happening around us than focusing on praying. 
3. Television/Social Media- We all know that social media has become apart of our lives and that it can pull us from the reality of life. 

With all these distractions around us, what is it that we can do to stay focused? Here are 5 steps to stay focused in prayer: 

1. Set Prayer Goals: It is important to find time in your daily routine to pray. Setting a goal to pray for a certain amount of time in a day or a week will help. 
2. Make prayer a priority over another daily task: When we put other tasks before prayer, that can lead us to forget about prayer or to continuously put it on the backburner. Making it a priority will help you get stay motivated. 
3. Find a quiet place, secluded place to make a prayer room: Sometimes all we need is some peace and quiet to have a successful prayer. Find a place, a corner, a closet, etc. that you can call your quiet place to pray at. 
4. Cell phones: With our phones constantly notifying us, we just need turn our phones off or place in another room to not get distracted when we are ready to pray. 
5. Be in a position of prayer: Concentrate on being prepared to pray in every aspect. Be sure to be ready emotionally, physically, and spiritually. Be in a position that is comfortable for you. 

If you are looking to get a better prayer life or simply adding to the prayer life you may already have, following these steps will help get you back on track. We must remember that prayer should be a priority and we should try our best to pray even just a couple mins a day or a couple times a week. It will make all the difference.