Remembering thins can sometimes be difficult. You might have difficulty remembering names, locations or certain places, etc. It does happen to not only seniors but young individuals as well. So, there’s no need to worry. While some people tend to have great memory by birth, others tend to master them. Mastering the remembering technique is not at all difficult and requires a bit of practice. Even memory championship winners use the same technique to enable their minds to memorize things.
However, it comes down to what technique suits you and helps you remember almost everything you want. Let’s discover these techniques and see how we can master them.
Memory Palaces
When it comes to improving your remembering capability, memory palaces is one of the most famous and effective memory exercises out there. Memory championships swear by this technique. This technique works by associating your memory with a location that you are most familiar with. This way, if you wish to remember something, you will be able to remember it instantly as soon as you either visit the location or think about it in your mind.
The key behind memory palaces is to use every sense at your disposal such as auditory and kinetic etc. Therefore, you can visualize yourself walking through your home and remembering every single detail that you can find. You can physically walk through as well if it helps for that matter. Associate each item or object with that you wish to remember. The association of certain things that wish to remember with physical items and objects helps improve remembering significantly.
Spaced Repetition
The space repetition helps with retaining memories as well. Some very prominent psychologists also agree with the effectiveness of this technique and encourage individuals to follow it if they experience troubles with retaining memories. The logic behind spaced repetition is that people tend to remember what they had read yesterday as compared to a paragraph read almost a year back. At the same time, humans also tend to forget things within 10 to 15 minutes of their happening.
However, if you were to reinforce what you wish to learn at regular intervals, you will get a hold of that information for longer. This technique is all about remembering things at the right time. Therefore, you can use flashcards for this purpose. You can divide flashcards into three batches, depending on how easy it is for you to recall things. If you do clearly remember something, use the same flashcard within ten minutes. If you happen to remember, test yourself at a longer interval.
The Chunking Technique
The chunking technique involves clubbing things together into groups. For instance, if you wish to remember your grocery list, you can associate the items with each shelf in the store. Furthermore, if you are trying to learn a new language, you should learn words associated with a strong context such as winter clothing and breakfast food items, etc. Since the human brain is naturally designed to look for patterns, chunking allows the brain to retain information in easy-to-remember packets.
Expression Mnemonics or Acronyms
You might have used this technique to remember things properly back in school. This technique involves remembering things using acronyms. For instance, if you are taking music lessons, you will try to learn the line “Staying Blessed Always” with STB. The best thing about acronyms is that they are difficult to forget. Therefore, if you were to use this technique, you are guaranteed to retain memories for relatively longer.
How To Remember Things Through Lifestyle Changes
The above-mentioned techniques were focused on improving your remembering capability. However, they will not be of any use if your lifestyle is unhealthy and inadequate. So let’s move towards discussing how you can improve remembering things through lifestyle changes.
Get Adequate Sleep
One of the most common mistakes students tend to make is that they skip several hours of sleep to study in an effort to remember things. Although it might work for some but for a very short period of time. If they were to continue this practice, they will face a hard time retaining things later in life. The reason is that sleep deprivation is not the solution to remember things better.
It affects cognitive abilities including memory. Not only does the lack of sleep affect the memory but leads to several diseases such as cancer, heart, and obesity, etc. Several studies have been conducted to observe and determine the relationship between sleep and memory and researchers have found that an adequate amount of sleep helps with better memory retention.
Taking Naps Will Help Improve Memory
If you are having trouble getting a sufficient amount of sleep, you should try getting naps. Human brains are designed to refresh themselves even if you receive 15 minutes’ worth of sleep. Furthermore, scientists at NASA have also supported the fact through their sleep experiments that naps help in boosting memory. It allows an individual to focus on one task at one time while keeping other tasks in memory for later.
Foods Help Boost Your Memory
You might have never thought that food helps you boost your memory. Believe it or not, it does. There was a time when it was just a theory and now it is a fact. Researchers and experts state that foods have a direct relationship with the way we retain things. There are several foods easily available today that help us boost our energy such as fish, walnuts, blueberries, and grains, etc. Furthermore, several studies have shown that the consumption of green tea leads to enhanced activity in the brain’s prefrontal cortex. This leads to improved overall cognition. Moreover, the Mediterranean diet including food items mentioned previously also helps prevent life-threatening diseases such as cancer. Therefore, there are plenty of reasons to include these foods in your daily diet.
Exercise Helps With Memory Improvement
Exercise happens to be another great way to improve memory. Although doctors recommend exercising on a daily basis to keep the body in shape and motion but its effects extend beyond just physical benefits. It is a well-known fact that exercising helps flow blood to the brain, which has several cognitive benefits such as better concentration and positive mood etc. It also helps trigger the growth of vital proteins in the important memory retention parts of the brain. Exercising does not only mean that you have to put up a half an hour grueling session each day. Just 150 minutes of walking every week will help you improve your memory.
Socializing For Stronger Memories
Australian researchers conducted a study on over 700 individuals over 15 years and found that socializing helps improve memory. Several other studies have been conducted on the same subject and it was concluded that socializing helps prevent memory loss through dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. The reason is that when people are invited to gatherings, they try to recall and remember important events of the past, which helps reinforce the information. So if anyone had forgotten or was about to forget something, others will help them remember.
Curiosity Leads to Better Memory
Humans tend to be interested in things that make them curious. In an effort to find the answer, they will go to any length and this helps them remember things comparatively better. The reason is that curiosity involves asking many questions. As we look for answers, we try to remember the previous things to help us put the pieces together. A key factor behind curiosity helping us with better memory is that it exercises all the brain cells. Studies suggest that curious people tend to have comparatively fewer chances of developing diseases such as Alzheimer’s.
Do More Challenging Tasks
Studies have found that people who tend to perform challenging tasks have fewer chances of developing diseases such as Alzheimer’s. Working on something that challenges your brain keeps the neurons on their toes and prevents them from deteriorating over time. This is why people who are involved with mathematics and games like Chess have a sharper brain as compared to regular individuals. If you are working somewhere that is boring and unchallenging, you should make it challenging for yourself. Take up additional responsibility and challenge yourself by setting some goals.
Be More Interesting
Showing more interest in things that you see, work on, or hear, etc. tends to help retain us better. For example, if we are interested in a particular car model, we will be curious to find out its history and other related information. Sometimes, you might not be interested in certain things and this is where you need to find some reasons. Remind yourself constantly as to why it is important for you to remember. If it is important for your personal or professional life, you will observe that your brain will automatically program itself to strengthen neurons and reinforce those memories.
Final Word
We have covered a wide range of remembering techniques to help you recall memories better. However, you do not need to practice all of them. The idea behind this is that you should experiment with each one and find the most suitable match. Once you do, you will observe a substantial difference in your memory.
