7 Ways to Improve Your Memory

Building Memory: A Pro-Active Task

The best thing that can be done to offset the cognitive effects of aging is to pro-actively take steps to improve one’s memory. Exercises are presented herein as techniques for sharpening memory.

Life Begins Anew

Techniques for improving memory are particularly relevant to the many baby boomers currently reaching what used to be retirement age. Today, retirement means new beginnings. Developing one’s memory strength can yield a new level of cognition that enhances the lifestyle not only of baby boomers entering retirement but anyone else at any age.

Techniques

The following is a short list of practical ways to improve memory.

1) Grouping

Rearrangement of large numbers of items into smaller units of logical or artificial (organized) groups.

For example:
332245638 becomes 332-245-638

OR

Items can be rearranged according to organized categories or types: for example, a movie list can be divided into comedies, dramas, and romances, etc.

OR

Spelling is another good variation on grouping, such as taking the first letters or syllables of things one must remember to form new words that spell out the information.

For example:

H.O.M.E.S.: (The 5 Great Lakes: Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, Superior.)
PEWSAGL.: The 7 deadly sins: pride, envy, sloth, avarice, gluttony, lust.
ROY G. BIV: The 7 colors of the visual spectrum:
red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet

2) Attention

Drive out all distractions, especially in the first eleven seconds of learning something new. Minimize environmental interference from music or televison. Block it all out, and create the environment most conducive to paying attention. Your DVD player and stereo will be waiting for you when you are done.

3) Interest

When you learn something new or important, ask questions to stimulate interest. Take part or sides in problems, issues and subjects you are learning about. Form an opinion, find a personal connection, become as impassioned as possible to help remember new facts.

4) Believe in Yourself

In the age of computers, cell phones, and PDA’s, many in our society have become accustomed to assuming that they can no longer remember anything. Well, this is not true. Trust and believe in your ability to remember. The more confident you are in your memory, the better you will remember.

5) Start Right

When you first learn something, concentrate on managing input to ensure accurate retention. Speed of memorization is not as important as accuracy.

6) Effective Selection

When learning something new, concentrate on the most significant elements. If there is a lot of information, instructions, or data being presented, just focus on the information that seems the most important.

If you only feel you can only remember part of what you are learning, focus on the data or details that seem hardest to remember.

7) Background

Questions also serve to build background. The best way to remember something is to find out more about it. Look for associations in the form of common patterns or relationships between the old and the new.

Hold the Course

It may not be easy to apply these techniques, but an honest effort will rapidly turn seemingly undetectable progress into visible results.