This my be my most audacious post on my blog. One in which I offer prayer advice. When it comes to praying badly I am quite an expert at it. Really though this post is how to help to develop the habit of prayer for some personality types. Plus with Lent starting, just possibly what I offer might be useful to someone.<\/p>\n
I really put the pro<\/em> in procrastinating and so even things I prioritize gets put off for later and then don\u2019t get done at all for that day. Why put off something today you can put off tomorrow? Really I have been thinking about doing this post for a couple of weeks.<\/p>\n Last year I got an Apple Watch and I soon found that the activity tracker was very helpful for me. For one the three-ring activity indicator was a constant reminder I was failing in one of those areas. So I started to prioritize exercising each day and looking for opportunities to walk. I soon found I was doing this every single day, even on days when I could have found tons of reasons not to do it that day. I have maintained this for over six months now and went down some pant sizes and have made this a habit every day of the week.<\/p>\n During this I was observing myself and wondering why this visual indicator was so important to me? Part of it was maintaining a streak and continuously hitting the goals. A visual indicator of an accomplishment. But I also found that even when I was unable to exercise because of sickness or travel, that when able to do so again – did so. So it got me into the habit to the point where it was a habit.<\/p>\n Still as much as physical health is important, I wanted to prioritize my prayer life even more. So I figured that if the activity rings provided me the motivation I needed, then maybe something could help me likewise in my prayer life. Around the same time I had been thinking about this I had seen various app reviews about goal oriented apps where you could set daily goals to check off each day with various options.<\/p>\n One of the prayers I have continued in since even before I officially entered the Church was the Liturgy of the Hours. Really I had been pretty good starting my day with the Office of Readings<\/em> and Morning Prayer<\/em>, but Evening<\/em> and Night Prayer<\/em> would often fall away – especially on weekends. The same for the Rosary – I normally would pray it towards the end of the day during the first part of the week, but weekends rarely.<\/p>\n So I wanted to set two goals. One to pray those hours in the Liturgy of the Hours that I sometimes didn\u2019t get to and to be much more consistent in praying the Rosary.<\/p>\n So around the beginning of the year I bought an an iOS app called Strides: Goals & Habits Tracker + SMART Goal Setting<\/a> and set these two daily goals. I was also able to set the time where it would show an indicator that one of my goals needed attention. So now for over a month I have not failed to meet these two goals daily.<\/p>\n So for whatever reason my personality quirks found this method useful in meeting goals and actually planning a head of time to make sure I provide the time for this. When it comes to exercise and prayer it certainly does take a significant block of time each day – but what I would fill that block with otherwise would be less helpful for me. I also found that more consistency in praying the Rosary was actually helpful in praying the Rosary for me. There was another prayer hack that I added in praying the Rosary, but I will discuss that on another day.<\/p>\n No doubt this technique will not work for everybody. You have to care about some indicator badge on an app and it has to annoy you enough to meet the goal.<\/p>\n The app I used – Strides<\/a> has been getting the job done for me. It is fairly easy to setup and to interact with daily. Although based on this review<\/a> I would probably have bought Streaks<\/a> instead as it seems to be the better designed app. Momentum Habit Tracker<\/a> is another possible consideration for much more tracking. I admit the main reason I haven\u2019t switched over to Streaks<\/a> is that I already have a months worth of data in Strides<\/a> and while losing it would really mean nothing, there is psychological momentum connected with it.<\/p>\n No doubt there are equivalent apps on Android, although the one they have called Streaks is a habit reminder, but is is not from the same creators as the iOS app of that name.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This my be my most audacious post on my blog. One in which I offer prayer advice. 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