Memory Improvement Techniques

Dear Sparshu,

Let me be frank with you, I never had good short term memory. I could never remember dates and events of history books, and also neither good in remembering places river, etc from geography books in school. I was good in Maths and Science as that did not require remembering things, it was more of analytic ability, however as I see now having a good memory is important, not only in school but also in daily life and work life.

Nowadays I rely on technology to remember things, but I saw this wonderful program today on National Geographic about how to improve our memory, and I thought of sharing it with you. I hope this helps you in school days and also in your life. I am too gonna try these techniques from now, and I am pretty positive it would work.

First technique is breaking up things into chunks. For example if you want to remember a 12 digit number like 304832146043 it would be difficult ,as there is a limitation of how much data we can remember in short term memory. Try breaking this into chunks like 3048-3214-6043. Now it would be much easier to remember these 12 digits, as effectively your brain is counting this as 3 chunks or 3 numbers rather than 12. You can try this technique to remember phone numbers, social security numbers, bank account numbers, etc

Second technique is imagination. Let’s say if you want to remember few things in order, let’s say a list of continents in alphabetical order.  So what you want to remember is:  Africa , Antarctica, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America and South America. Close your eyes and imagine your home, there is an African Lion sitting on the couch in the hall, there is ice cream from Antarctica in the kitchen fridge, there is hot Indian food on the platform, there is a Kagaroo in your playing room, Statue of Liberty in the office room, Rockefeller tower in the guest bedroom and Brazil soccer t-shirt inside the closet of the guest bed room. You can have your own imagination too or use this if you like. Keep your eyes and sink it in, then open your eyes and you would be able to easily recall the list of continents in alphabetical order. It’s about imagination and relating it to daily life.

 Third technique is the first alphabet technique. Let’s say you want to remember a list of items to get from Walmart or any other list but not in any particular order, this technique would be very useful. Let’s say for eg you want to remember the list for shopping: Milk, Curd, Cupcakes, Burritos, Nachos, Pink Lemonade, Pretzels, Chipotle, Burger, Salad, Juice and French fries. Seems difficult doesn’t it.  These are 12 items, what you can do it pick first letter of each item: mccbnppcbsjf. Now make any random meaningful or meaningless story with one word for each of these letter. For eg. ‘Mom can cook (in)butter (but)not proper paneer. Can be successful January February.’ It is easier to remember these 2 sentences, it need not be meaningful and then you would be able to recall the list of items easily.

Finally it happens a lot of times when we enter a room to get something, and we forget what we had come for. This happens as the door of the room acts as a kinda reset of short term memory. To avoid this talk to yourself what you are coming in the room to get or to find while you are entering. For eg, say keys keys keys while entering, in that way you would remember what you came in the room for.

As you grow up, you would also have access to technology, use them as well to remember things and make to do lists. It is very important to have a to-do list, you do not forget anything and it is a very important aspect for being successful. However also make sure you keep your brain sharp and memory strong, it would help you a lot in school, work and life. Practice above techniques and you will get better at them and more smart and effective….Love you Bhanju!!!

Yours Lovingly,

Mamu