1. Minimize distractions in your environment. This is mostly about choosing a time and place. I'm at a stage of life that makes this easier. I try to go to bed early so that I feel well rested. I think posture is important but not all important. In other words, I like to kneel in prayer, but it's not a legalistic practice. God knows what we can and can't do. I try to choose a place that isn't inherently distracting.
2. Establish a routine that you can stick with. Routines are critical. This puts praying in the arena of my will. If I let my feelings drive my life, I'll never have good spiritual practices. Life will always work against our routines and sometimes they will be unavoidably altered. That's OK. Get back to your good practices as soon as possible.
3. Pray from a list. This helps me remember and prioritize what I want to pray about. It helps especially to remind me to pray for people who have asked that I pray for them. It also gives my imagination a place to go that is visually helpful as I pray. I doodle all over my prayer list, but it keeps my eyes on where I want my thoughts.
4. Pray the Biblical attributes of God alphabetically. Of course, we don't want to ever pray mindlessly or by rote. That's what the Bible calls vain repetition (Matthew 6:7). But I find that I can cite alphabetically an attribute or action of God without much difficulty. For example I might pray that God is Almighty. I thank God that He existed before all things, and so on. It keeps my thoughts from straying everywhere and keeps me worshiping God in my praying.
5. Pray with your Bible open. Lately I am finding it helpful to go to places in the Bible and pray the text back to God. I try to find relevance and ways that the Bible is calling me to obedience, and I pray the text as a form of petition.
I'm willing to try anything reasonably helpful that will keep me attending in my praying. I hope this helps stimulate your thoughts on prayer as well.
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