We can talk to God without any formal floormat! Many people say prayers expecting to get His attention and the truth is, we already have His attention.
People look for the perfect seven steps that will cause God to move on our behalf when the truth is He already has, and He keeps doing it even when we don't ask for it. The truth is, the moment we ask someone to pray about a situation, we just did! Think about that for a moment.
Father knows our heart and He knows everything we need and the more we understand that He has, the more we can walk as though He has. He has because He is!
I am not saying we don't need to talk to Him. I believe the biggest reason He wants our prayers is because it is a relational act. We learn to talk relationally with Him like a child who talks to their parents. It increases our awareness and dependence upon Him. We learn to talk to Him about others and what they need. Our adoration of Him grows bigger when we see how He lovingly relates and speaks to us.
I have discovered that prayer should not be a formal thing that we use to muster up His attention. We have His undivided attention. He knows what we want and need before we even think or speak it. What an amazing Father we have!!