Cooperating with memory is one tricky deal! It has a knack of playing shadow games with its owner; showing up one moment and vanishing into thin air the very next. Try locating its secret hideout place and you won't succeed but the moment you stop to regain your senses it’ll show up right in front of you looking like it is ready to embrace you. It’s not like an animal that you can tame, but it can surely be a loving pet that you can befriend; once you’ve made friends with your own self. You heard it! Having a memory that’ll show up in the need of the hour depends a lot on how you treat yourself and your memory first. Are you eating right or eating what the tongue demands? Are you sleeping well or spending nights counting the sheep? Do you study one night before the exam or study consistently over regular periods? Do you do things the dull way or the fun way? Whatever are your answers for the previous questions, know that they impact the way your brain functions. Don’t underutilize something that has the capability to extend its limits and continue reading to get some tips on memory improvement.
Memory Improvement Tips
Attention to Details
Giving full attention to the details of what you’re reading or studying is one of the most basic yet difficult things to do while storing information in your memory. To make the best use of your own memory is to use it where it’ll be undisturbed. Make yourself sit into an undisturbed environment like an isolated room or separate study room, where there’s not much noise, to actively attend to the information at hand.
Regular Study Sessions
Rather than mugging up the data or information just before the D-day (exam, meeting, or presentation), arrange for regular study sessions spread over a not-so-distant time periods and do keep well to adhere the schedule. Even research has shown that regular feeding of the information into the brain keeps it there for longer periods as compared to information crammed up in a jiffy.
Organizing & Structuring
Sometimes, information on diverse topics fed to the brain at one go doesn’t stick as well as you would have wanted it to. Best way to avoid this hotchpotch and make things stick up there for longer periods is by utilizing our brains’ capability to organize the information in clusters. By organizing and structuring the information you process and group the similar concepts and terms together in one place via notes, underlining or highlighting.
Mnemonic Technique
Mnemonic technique is yet another widely used way to hold information into the brain for longer durations of time. The dictionary meaning states that it is a device (often a rhyme, acronym, or an object) used to aid in recalling the retained information. And the best way to utilize the mnemonic technique is by relating positive imagery to memorize a certain part of the information and then recalling that imagery and eventually the information to make use of the same, in later stage.
Visual Aid
It’s a fact that visuals stick sooner and for longer duration of time than textual information. While you try to study or memorize something, try to do it with visual aid. Either make use of the photographs, charts, or other graphics that are already there or try to create your own visuals in your mind while you memorize stuff. The visuals you yourself create will not only help you to store the information in your brain but to also recall it with ease at any point when the need arises. You can also choose to pen down your visuals into a notebook for later references.
Add & Expand
Relating or linking new information to the stuff you already know is one of the ways to improve memory. Try and establish relationships between the new ideas and the existing memories. This way you’ll be able to do both, recall the earlier information with a little more ease and store up the new information linked with old. Also, teaching someone about the stuff you’ve studied is the best way to make its grasp stronger in your mind.
Eat Right & Sleep Well
The most simple technique of all; sleep and doze off. However, that doesn't mean you take these words at their face value and start doing just that. Research has proved that sleep deprivation hinders the brain’s power to function to the fullest and that it’s when the body is deep in slumber that the brain locks up the vital information. Onto eating, consume products that are rich in omega 3 fatty acids as they are proven to be beneficial for brain health. Fish and fish oil supplements are a good source of Omega 3 fatty acids. Also include lots of fruits and vegetables in your diet to enhance your brain’s memorizing power.
Memory is like the sand in your hand; the harder you try to control it, the more it’ll slip away quietly. Following these memory improvement tips will help you hold on to th memory.
