"How can I pray better?"  

1) In Preparing my Morning Meditation 

Take 10 minutes the night before to write out your points. Make it the last thing you think of when going to bed and the first thing you think about the next morning. 

Decide ahead of time the themes of your meditations. If I'm working on a particular virtue in my life, themes that correspond with that virtue. 

Write out the fruit I want to get from the meditation. 

2) In Doing my Meditation 

Offer up my meditation for a concrete intention. 

Make an act of the presence of God. Make acts of faith, hope, love, humility and confidence in God. 

Ask Mary to teach me how to pray. She taught Christ. 

Have a composition of place, usually a Gospel scene. Use all of your senses. You can use the Gospel of the day from the liturgy for this. 

At the end write out the resolution of my meditation. If God's will during the day is the test, my resolution is a concrete way of knowing what God's will is for me that day. 

Many possible ones: offer everything I do. Make Zacchaeus' resolution to pay your wrongs fourfold and do four acts of charity. Speak about Christ to someone at work. 

Pray to the Holy Spirit. "Holy Spirit, gentle guest and consoler of my soul, enlighten my mind to know God's will for me. Inflame my heart to love it passionately. Strengthen my will to accomplish it as perfectly as you ask of me. Lastly, Spirit of love, grant me the graces I will need to respond faithfully to your holy inspirations." 

3) In Living my Meditation During the Day 

Examination of conscience each night. 5-10 minutes. Make a resolution to improve something tomorrow. Search for God's will in your life and examine how you are in fact fulfilling it. Write down at least the points that could be material for my next confession. 

Pray Always  

The Catechism in Number 2743 makes the following challenging assertion: "It is always possible to pray." Then it quotes St. John Chrysostom, "It is possible to offer fervent prayer even while walking in public or strolling alone, or seated in your shop,...while buying or selling,...or even while cooking."  

Prayer to the Holy Spirit before different activities of the day. Offer them for a specific intention. 

Be docile to the inspirations of the Holy Spirit. How can I tell? If it's costly, my first impulse is to say no, probably an inspiration of the Holy Spirit. God is always asking more.  

Prayer before Christ in the Eucharist 

"I would like to recommend to you to spend a lot of time in the presence of the Eucharist. It is near to the Tabernacle that you should live the best moments of your day, in order to listen to Christ, to let yourselves be won over by Christ, to form yourselves in the school of Christ, to acquire the sentiments of Christ, to learn to have the mind and the will of Christ, to understand the love of Christ, and also to rest from your fatigue, to cry for your infidelities, to ask for advice and light in your moments of difficulty, to share your joys with your Spouse; and to pray for your companions and for the whole Church" (Fr Marcial Maciel). 

Conclusion: 

Never lose heart. If Christ exhorts us not to lose heart, it is because he knows we may be tempted to do so. Especially if there is someone we have been praying for during a long time, and nothing seems to be happening. With the world the way it is today, I'm sure each one of us knows at least one such person, and we may be praying for nothing less than that they return to the faith itself.  

No matter how much we think we love them. Christ loves them even more. He shed his blood on the cross for them. So if we keep supplicating him without losing heart, we can be sure that he will find the moment to answer our prayers.