I do not believe that prayer requires that we stop what we are doing. Prayer is communication with God and that can occur at any moment without having to stop anything. If you are driving down the highway and you see a terrible accident, it is perfectly acceptable and appropriate to pray for those involved even as you continue driving and paying attention to the road. As something happens that you want to talk with God about, you can do so immediately without interrupting what you are doing. I am not saying that you should not take time aside to focus exclusively on God, Jesus certainly did so and in fact told us that this was the best way to pray: Matthew 6:6But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. What I am saying is that, while the ideal prayer situation is one in which it is just you and God and you can focus on him exclusively, prayer is not limited to only such situations.

Many aspects of Jesus' work had nothing to do with prayer. Prayer is only one of the many things he did. When the disciples asked him to teach them how to pray, he did not respond that your actions are louder than your words; neither did he tell them that they should do things for their brothers as an act of prayer. Instead, Jesus taught them what has come to be known as The Lord's Prayer (Luke 11:2-4).

I do not believe that the aim of prayer is to help us find God in the people around us. It may be one of the aims of your prayers if that is something you are trying to work on in your own spiritual life and I certainly don't see any problem with that; but it is not the aim of prayer itself. The aim of prayer is to communicate our thoughts, feelings, and desires to the almighty and to ask for his intervention in our lives and the lives of those around us.