Get your brain in motion

Tag: memory (Page 1 of 2)

7 tips to improve your memory

Can’t find your car keys? Forget your grocery list? You’re not alone. Everyone forgets things occasionally. Still, memory loss is nothing to take lightly. Although there are no guarantees when it comes to preventing memory loss , certain activities might help.

This article provides seven simple ways to sharpen your memory:

1. Include physical activity in your daily routine: Physical activity increases blood flow to your whole body, including your brain. This might help keep your memory sharp.

2. Stay mentally active: Just as physical activity helps keep your body in shape, mentally stimulating activities help keep your brain in shape.

3. Socialize regularly: Social interaction helps ward off depression and stress, both of which can contribute to memory loss.

4. Get organized: You’re more likely to forget things if your home is cluttered and your notes are in disarray. Jot down tasks, appointments and other events in a special notebook, calendar or electronic planner. Keep to-do lists current and check off items you’ve completed. Limit distractions and don’t do too many things at once.

5. Sleep well: Sleep plays an important role in helping you consolidate your memories, so you can recall them down the road. Make getting enough sleep a priority.

6. Eat a healthy diet: A healthy diet might be as good for your brain as it is for your heart. Eat fruits, vegetables and whole grains. Choose low-fat protein sources, such as fish, beans and skinless poultry. What you drink counts, too.

7. Manage chronic conditions: The better you take care of yourself, the better your memory is likely to be.

Image source: PixabayTumisu

8 ways to remember anything

The mind’s capacity to store and recall information is truly wondrous.

However there are Always ways to improve our memory capacity and our abilities to recall information.

This article provides 8 stategies to rember better:

  1. Become interested in what you’re learning. We’re all better remembering what interests us. If you’re not intrinsically interested in what you’re learning or trying to remember, you must find a way to become so.
  2. Find a way to leverage your visual memory. It requires mental effort to do this, but if you practice you’ll be surprised how quickly you can come up with creative ways to generate images. Remember: Memory for humans is predominantly visual.
  3. Create a mental memory tree. If you’re trying to memorize a large number of facts, find a way to relate them in your mind visually with a memory tree. Construct big branches first, then leaves. Branches and leaves should carry labels that are personally meaningful to you in some way, and the organization of the facts (“leaves”) should be logical.
  4. Associate what you’re trying to learn with what you already know. It seems the more mental connections we have to a piece of information, the more successful we’ll be in remembering it. This is why using mnemonics actually improves recall.
  5. Write out the items to be memorized over and over and over. Writing out facts in lists improves recall if you make yourself learn the lists actively instead of passively. In other words, don’t just copy the list of facts you’re trying to learn but actively recall each item you wish to learn and then write it down again and again and again. This method has the added benefit of immediately showing you exactly which facts haven’t made it into your long-term memory so you can focus more attention on learning them rather than wasting time reinforcing facts you already know.
  6. When reading for retention, summarize each paragraph in the margin. This requires you to think about what you’re reading, recycle it, and teach it to yourself again. Even take the concepts you’re learning and reason forward with them; apply them to imagined novel situations, which creates more neural connections to reinforce the memory.
  7. Do most of your studying in the afternoon. Though you may identify yourself as a “morning person” or “evening person” some studies suggest your ability to memorize isn’t influenced as much by what time of day you perceive yourself to be most alert but by the time of day you actually study—afternoon appearing to be the best.
  8. Get adequate sleep to consolidate and retain memories. Not just at night after you’ve studied but the day before you study as well.

Imagine: PixabayGeralt

The memory of an elephant

The Diplo calendar 2019 realized by Stefano Baldi presents a selection of quotes for better living and better working.

All the quotes are about animals and their behaviours, their instincts and the complexity of their social dynamics.

Here is the selected quotation for the month of April

If you do not have a memory like an elephant
leave impressions like one

Anonymous

7 tips to remember anyone’s name

Have you ever wished you could remember the names of all the people you met at that last networking event? Have you ever wondered how to read more books when the time available to us seems to be less and less?
Enter Jim Kwick: otherwise known as “memory superhero”. World expert in speed-reading, memory improvement and optimal brain performance, Jim was able to rewire his brain to function at top speed and is now teaching others to do the same.

In this wonderful “The School of Greatness” podcast episode Jim Kwik shares with host Lewis Howes his story and some tips about mastering the art of memory.

For example, he shares his method for remembering someone’s name: all you have to do is keep in mind BE SUAVE.

  1. Believe
  2. Exercise
  3. Say the name
  4. Use it
  5. Ask about it
  6. Visualize
  7. End by saying their name

Remembering someone’s name is perceived as a sign of caring. When people think you care, they trust you. Trust is what any leader wants from his co-workers.

So start working on your memory skills! As Jim says, “If knowledge is power, learning is a superpower.”

Here is the link to listen the episode: 

3 Ways To Master Your Memory and Unlock Your Inner Superhero

You can visit Jim Kwik’s website where you can learn more about his method and the courses he offers.

Boost your memory and sharpen your time

Just as time management is vital to the effectiveness of managers, so the management of memory is vital for their productivity and success. Organizing our thoughts is as important as organizing our desk. Our multitasking reality puts a strain on our memory since we have to manage at the same time different information and deadlines belonging to different duties and tasks.

In this free book “Boost your memory and sharpen your time” , Harold. L. Taylor explains how to train and increase our memory using it in our everyday job.

 

boost-your-memory-and-sharpen-your-mind

7 Tricks to Improve Your Memory

Jancee Dunn, from Time Online Magazine, suggests 7 useful techniques to improve our memory:

1. Play brain games

2. Eat the right foods

3. Quit multitasking

4. Master a new skill

5. Get more sleep

6. Use mnemonic devices

7. Hit the gym

Read more on: Times Online Magazine, 7 Tricks to Improve Your Memory

memory_bubble

Image source: brainu.org, Memory bubble

©2000-2013, BrainU, University of Minnesota Department of Neuroscience and Department of Curriculum and Instruction. Supported by a Science Education Partnership Award (SEPA) from the National Center For Research Resources and the Division of Program Coordination, Planning, and Strategic Initiatives of the National Institutes of Health, with additional funding from SEDAPA and ARRA. Its content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of NCRR or NIH.

Proposed by: Camilla Sicuro

« Older posts