One of the things that all the classical spiritual writers stressed was the importance of not skipping or shortening your prayer time. Of all the well known spiritual writers who have written about the depths of prayer and intimacy with God, many have stressed that the first stage of this spiritual growth lies in faithfully sticking to your prayer time(s) day in and day out, and not giving in to the temptation to shorten them.
Many spiritual writers have advised that you choose how long your 'prayer session' will be each day (and at what time) then you turn up at that time and stay put for that length of time come what may. In a sense, the turning up every day and the staying put for the set length of time is more important than anything that you sense happening during the prayer time.
There are two temptations we need to resist. One is the temptation to skip our prayer time because we don't feel like it or because we feel we have too much to do. The other is the temptation to shorten our prayer period because we feel we have too much to do, or alternatively to end the prayer time early because we're bored or distracted or nothing seems to be happening.
A timer on a phone can be a handy way of staying put in prayer. At the beginning of your prayer time you can put into the timer the length of prayer time you are committed to, then all you need to do is simply stay put come what may until the timer goes off.
Is turning up faithfully to your prayer time(s) each day something you find easy or is it something you struggle with? Do you find that you're often tempted to shorten your prayer time or end it early? What reasons do you give for cancelling or shortening your prayer time? Do these reasons seem fair in light of how great and loving and faithful God is?
You might like to challenge yourself not to miss or shorten a prayer time for seven days straight. You could use a habit tracker to keep you accountable or to see how you're doing at the challenge. If you found seven days easy, you could try twenty-one days.
The truth behind this challenge is that prayer shouldn't be reduced to something we do only when we feel like it, or something we shorten as and when we please. Prayer is about loyal relationship with God. It's about faithful attentiveness to God and preserving stretches of time for God despite how we feel and despite how busy we are. We do this first and foremost out of love and devotion to God. As the spiritual writers say, this very loyalty to prayer and not giving in to the temptation to cancel or shorten it also helps us to grow in spiritual maturity and intimacy with God.