St Peter of Damascus - This is what Ephrem and other holy fathers recommend...

This is what Ephrem and other holy fathers recommend to those setting out on the spiritual path.

One man should have a psalm on his lips, another a verse of a hymn; all those who have not yet been found worthy of entering the realm of contemplation and spiritual knowledge, the fathers tell us, should attend with the intellect to psalms and troparia.

In this way each will be engaged in some kind of meditation, whether working or traveling or lying down before sleep.

As soon as each has finished his appointed rule of prayer, he should at once enclose his intellect in some form of meditation, lest the enemy find him unoccupied in the remembrance of God and attack him with vanities or worse.
This counsel is given to all.

St Peter of Damascus