Prayer and Richard John Neuhaus' work

Last week, one of my favorite authors, one who has been very influential to my worldview over the last 10-15 years, died.  Richard John Neuhaus was the editor-at-large of First Things, the sine qua non of my monthly reading.  I've been reading several remembrances of his over the past few days, but this quote stood out to me as something I need to take heed of:

I asked him his secret for being so prodigious a reader and writer. His response I took initially as a non-sequitur, until I had a chance to reflect on it more and put it into practice. His secret, he told me, was to make sure he did his morning prayer before he began to read the newspaper. Once he had put God first and received his help for the day, he could then get to the work God was asking him to do with greater concentration. God seemed to multiply his efforts.

I don't currently open my day with formal, structured prayer of any sort.  My work day starts too early for me to attend the daily morning services at Hopwood, so I guess I need to pick a practice and do it by myself each morning.