Easy tips to improve your memory
Are you among those who feel that they have a poor memory? Most probably, you just have some less-than-effective habits when it comes to taking in and processing information. Except for disease, disorder, or injury, you can definitely improve your ability to learn and retain information.
Just like muscular strength, your ability to remember things increases when you exercise your memory and take care of it with a healthy diet and other healthy habits. There are many steps you can take to improve your memory and retrieval capacity.
Wouldn't it be nice to just look at a page and never forget what was on there? What if you could never again forget a friend's birthday or other such occasions? This article can get you started. But first you need to understand how we remember.
What is memory?
If our brains were computers, we'd simply add a chip to upgrade our memory. However, the human brain is more complex than even the most advanced machine, so improving human memory needs a little more effort. Memory can be defined as the mental activity of recalling information that you have learned or experienced. That simple definition, though, covers a complex process that involves many different parts of the brain and serves us in different ways.
Tips to improve your memory
Below are some basic things you can do to improve your ability to retain and retrieve memories:
- Pay attention. To remember something, you need to pay enough attention to it. It takes about eight seconds of intent focus to process a piece of information through your hippocampus, a primitive structure deep in the brain, and into the appropriate memory center. So, avoid multitasking when you want to concentrate!
- Adapt information according to your learning style. Most people are visual learners; they learn best by reading or otherwise seeing what it is they have to know. But some are auditory learners who learn better by listening.
- Involve as many senses as possible. Even if you're a visual learner, read out loud what you want to remember. If you can recite it rhythmically, even better. Try to relate information to colors, textures, smells and tastes.
- Say the person's name. One easy method to help you remember people's names is to look at the person when you are introduced and say the person's name: 'Nice to meet you, John'.
- Write the event or task down immediately. Write things down in address books and date books and on calendars; take notes on more complex material and reorganize the notes into categories later. If you don't have a pen, you can simply wear your watch upside down to remember why it is done.
- Rehearse information frequently and 'over-learn'. Review what you've learned the same day you learn it, and at intervals thereafter. What researchers call 'spaced rehearsal' is more effective than 'cramming'. If you're able to 'over-learn' information so that recalling it becomes second nature, so much the better.
- Be motivated and keep a positive attitude. Tell yourself that you like to learn what you need to remember, and that you can learn and remember it. Telling yourself you have a bad memory actually hampers the ability of your brain to remember, while positive mental feedback sets up an expectation of success.
- Try a tray of objects. Keep at least 10 objects on a tray. Study them for 30 seconds. Take the tray away and write down all the objects you can. Increase the number of items for more mind exercise. Or get someone else to find the objects on the tray; this makes them harder to remember and will test you more.
- Be taught by mnemonic strategies. A large number of memory improvement products are available (a search on the internet will produce hundreds of such products). Most of these products actually teach you mnemonic strategies, and while some are no doubt bunk, some are legitimate.
- Sleep well. The amount of sleep we get affects the brain's ability to recall recently learned information. Getting a good night's sleep – a minimum of seven hours a night – may improve your short-term memory and long-term relational memory.
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