Everyone at one point or another complains about forgetting things. Our memories come into play every day of our lives. The better the memory you have, the more successful you can be in life. Below is a compilation of tips to help you develop and improve your memory.
If you are looking to improve your memory a little bit, then use the knowledge that you have by teaching others. Doing this makes your brain fire in a different way, and it helps in increasing memory. The trick is to teach something that you are genuinely interested in sharing.
The phrase “use it or lose it” definitely applies to your memory. Make time to engage in activities that require you to recall information, such as crossword puzzles, learning a new skill or reading. Teaching someone else is also a good way to make active use of your memory and prevent it from becoming rusty.
Writing by hand is a great way to help your memory. Writing with a pen or pencil engages your brain in a different way than typing on a computer. You can either copy out a speech your trying to memorize or keep track of your daily to do list by writing in a calendar. If you’ve written it out, you may be able to remember without even checking your list!
Try to stay away from pills that promise to help improve your memory. Most of the time, these pills are not effective and could cause you physical problems. Instead, you may want to look into supplements like Niacin, Thiamine, and Vitamin B-6. They all help to improve the part of the brain that deals with memory.
The easiest way to improve your memory is to get a good night’s sleep! Sometimes our busy schedules make it seem like cutting out a few hours of sleep is the only way to be productive, but your brain needs rest to function at its best. Sleeping is also when your brain processes and stores your memories from that day.
Participate in regular exercise. Exercise increases oxygen to the brain and can be helpful to your memory. It also gets blood flowing to your brain more. It can also help prevent diseases that can lead to memory loss in the future. An active body leads to an active mind.
When trying to commit something to memory, it is important to maintain low stress levels. This is because stress and anxiety can quickly cause you to lose your concentration. Concentration is necessary for acquiring new information. A good solution is to listen to soothing music. Music can help to keep your stress levels down, by keeping your mind off of the things that cause you to be anxious.
To help improve how quickly something is stored in your memory, take the time to bucket the information first. Act like an information architect and organize the information you are try to commit to memory based off of similarities. Once they are bucketed, attack them as a group. You will then find they are easier to memorize!
If you are having issues with remembering things, you may want to try relaxing techniques like yoga or meditation. When your body is relaxed, so is your mind which allows you to easily learn and remember things. Working your mind and body to hard will make memorizing things much worse.
Improving your memory may be something as simple as going out for a jog or a bike ride. Recent studies have shown that aerobic exercises can actually cause the development of new neurons in the hippocampus of the brain, which is considered to be the memory store center of the brain.
A great tip that can help you improve your memory is to start limiting how much alcohol you drink. Drinking too much alcohol can destroy many brain cells over time, which can severely impair your cognitive functions, such as memory. Limit your alcohol to only one or two drinks a day.
Carefully focus on what you are trying to memorize. This is especially important when you are studying. Never try to multitask. Turn off the television, turn off the radio. Just focus on what you need to memorize and the knowledge you need to retain. Many things can distract you without you even realizing it.
Cramming to remember information is rarely effective. If you must remember something, make study sessions. It is not very effective to try to absorb a lot of information in one short session. Your mind will become overwhelmed, and you will inevitably forget much of what you learned. Engage in study sessions on a regular basis to adapt your brain to the practice of remembering.
Your brain is a muscle like any other and it requires exercise to keep it healthy and in optimum working order. Make sure that you incorporate the advice given here to start working out your brain and improving your memory abilities. Being “forgetful” isn’t a life sentence and you are able to make a change for the better.
