The streams of information that flood us every day in the 21st century no longer impress anyone. We learn to filter messages, brush off everything unnecessary – it’s no wonder that our memory works the same way. But what if we start forgetting even the important things?
Of course, it is impossible to remember everything in the world – and yes, if you can’t remember what you had for breakfast yesterday, there’s nothing to worry about. It’s also normal to forget the surname of an old acquaintance, the address of a distant relative, a phone number – our brain understands that some information is not of particular value, and therefore, it can be discarded. But if poor memory starts to interfere with your daily tasks, you can try to “boost” it.
Candidate of Medical Sciences, neurologist Ekaterina Demianovskaya shared eight ways to quickly memorize everything you need.
8 MEMORY HACKS
1.Suitable atmosphere
If you need to prepare for a presentation or an exam, create the right environment for yourself. Don’t rush, find a quiet place where you can study, eliminate noise and bright light. Relax and get comfortable. All of this helps to activate your memory.
2.Daily planner
Yes, you heard it right. To remember something, you need to write it down. You may be familiar with this memory hack from your student days: if you write a cheat sheet by hand, you will most likely be able to reproduce it from memory (if you have the same exam question).
Taking notes really trains our brains. You can try an exercise: write a to-do list in the evening, and then remember it in the morning without opening your daily planner. Remember where you put exclamation marks and what you underlined.
3.Associations
Various formulas and numbers often slip from memory. To remember complex combinations, technical terms, or foreign words, you can use associations.
4.Poems
No one liked to memorize poems and prose passages in school, although it’s an excellent memory workout. Try to recall what it was like in your free time. Mentally “photograph” the text, read it a couple of times, and then close the book. And try to repeat it. When the arrangement of lines, the color of the paper, pictures, and fonts are imprinted in your memory, the passage will start to bounce off your tongue.
5.Practice Everywhere
Don’t forget to exercise your memory in your everyday life. Try to get to the theater without using a map app on your smartphone – relying on familiar signs, street names, and stores. Go shopping without a list of necessary items – there is a risk of buying more than you need, but soon you will start to only buy what you really need.
6.Everything Has Its Place
In the morning, spread out several items on your desk – a cup, a mirror, a comb, a chocolate bar, a pen, and sheets of paper. Memorize the order in which they are lying and take a picture. Throughout the day, things will clearly move from their places – but by evening, try to restore the status quo. And compare it with the photo you took in the morning.
7.Tables and Diagrams
If you need to memorize a lot of things at once, such as tenses in English, the periodic table, or Kant’s a priori forms – structure and classify the information using a mind map method. You can make a table or diagram, make a sketch, or write a short note, and distribute information into groups.
8.Online Exercises
The Stroop test is great for memory training – it is easy to find an online trainer on the Internet. The point is to quickly name the color of the font in which the word is written. It will be difficult: the word “blue” can be written in green and vice versa.
In addition, Ekaterina Demyanovskaya recommends that to improve your memory, you need to maintain the health of your nervous system. This means – keeping track of your sleep schedule, resting fully, walking in the fresh air, and avoiding head injuries.