10 Best Tricks to Improve Memory and Remember Everything
Memorizing things like names, dates, and other small details is a skill you can hone and hone. Here are ten methods anyone can learn to improve memory.
10. Visualize what you want to take from the room before you go for it.
There is something about walking into another room or walking through a doorway that flushes our short-term memory and makes us forget why we went there. If you visualize your goal before leaving your current room , you will increase your chances of remembering what you want. This also applies to the digital world: before you open a new browser tab and forget why you opened it, imagine a goal. As a person in the past who couldn’t find glasses, I have successfully used a similar technique: when lowering glasses, I now sharply focus on how the countertop looks and on the things on it, so that I remember where I put it. When it comes to memorization, we often have to take the initiative.
9. Play video games.
Add to that the many benefits of video games : Help form better memories as you age. This seems to be true for 3D video games rather than 2D. Playing games like Super Mario 64 for 30 minutes a day has been found to significantly increase the gray matter of the brain. So have fun building a bigger brain.
8. Learn the crushing technique.
We can only store a limited number of things in our short-term memory – by most estimates, four to seven different items. The chipping technique can help us get around this limitation: group multiple elements into a coherent whole. This is one of the techniques I learned while preparing for the US Memorization Championship to try and memorize ridiculously long sequences of numbers and pages of poetry in a matter of minutes.
7. Harness the power of music
We forget names and numbers so easily, but lyrics to your favorite songs or nursery rhymes? They tend to stick. Music helps us remember things through alliteration and rhythm . If you want to learn a foreign language, try practicing with subtitled music videos or even karaoke. LyricsTraining offers video resources, but of course there is YouTube. Singing in general helps your brain develop .
6. Create mnemonic bindings to memorize long lists.
Even without background music, you can use rhyme and rhythm to memorize things like shopping lists or lists of all US capitals. You link objects to rhymes . For example, 1 is a gun (imagine the first item is firing a gun), 2 is a boot, visualize the second item inside the boot, and so on.
5. Use the “Memory Palace” technique.
This is another technique used by memory champions: Build a memory palace where you visualize what you want to remember and associate them with a place that you vividly remember . For example, if your home is your mind’s palace, you might remember the order of your shopping list by imagining a giant jug of milk greeting you at your front door, slices of bread in the hallway, etc. as you walk through it.
4. Remember people’s names by forcing yourself to interact with them in a different way.
Of all the annoying times when our memory fails us, forgetting someone’s name can be the worst. It’s just that our main working memory isn’t all that good . However, if we try to establish a connection between an abstract name and a person, we are more likely to remember this name. It takes a little work: try asking the person you just met a question to give you time to repeat his or her name in your head , introduce this person to someone else (makes you repeat his name), better make eye contact . repeat the person’s name at the end of the conversation and create a visual hook for their name using their face .
3. Make what you want to remember as visual (and as absurd as possible).
We have both verbal and visual memory. Chances are, your visual memory is much stronger, as the video in Memorize the Periodic Table above can show you. Mental images are more memorable – and the rougher, more absurd and lively you make these images, the better. It helps build a story and try to engage all of your senses.
2. Take care of your health and learn new skills.
Unfortunately, our memory deteriorates as we age. However, caring for our basic health can go a long way towards improving our health. This means reducing stress in your life, exercising and staying in shape, and keeping your brain healthy by learning new skills. Here are 10 of our best ways to train and train your brain .
1. Pay attention and practice
The best memory comes down to three things: motivation, observation, and mechanics. MOM . Most of us forget people’s names because we don’t pay attention to them, or maybe we do n’t care . As far as mechanics go, find a trick that works for you (like one of the above) and keep using it. As for practice, a couple of minutes at night analyzing details and names in a day can strengthen your memory. Take notes as you read . Start relying on your own memory instead of technology .
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