Devotions?

Devotions are confusing? I add the question mark because I really don't know what they are. I have an idea of what they might look like to some people, but for me I'm still trying to figure that one out. At one point I would spend time reading and studying the Bible, about 30-45 minutes every day religiously. That I saw to be a problem, because I was not doing my devotions to spend time with God, I was doing them to check them off as something that I had done that day. Once I had check "devos" off for the day, spending time with God was not something that I thought about throughout the day. I figured, I spent time with Him this morning, I'm good for the day. I would pray at night, but even that was just to say that I did. I really did not want to do either of them. Looking back I see that there was no... purpose? Again, I don't really know what devotions have or are like.

Devotions have always been kind of weird, and they have only grown in their confusion. Awhile ago I thought that devotions meant spending time reading God's word. Then I thought that it meant studying God's word, or learning about God's word. Just recently I thought that it just meant spending time with God. Now I'm just confused and feel like I have no commitment to God or His word. I don't really spend time studying God's word, nor praying to God, or anything structured for that matter. The interesting part is that I am still learning a lot about God. I'm learning a lot about myself and my relation to God, but I haven't done "devotions" in about 3 months. What does that mean? What are devotions? Do devotions have anything to do with devoting your self to God?