Improve Your Memory Tips

1)When you need to remember something important, find a way to create an image about it in your mind that is very funny or bizarre. Your brain easily remembers things that are unusual, or funny or scary, while it easily forgets things that don't stand out in any way.2)Make written lists of what you need to do or to remember. This will free up your brain to remember other things that are more important.

3)Be sure to get enough sleep. Your brain uses its sleeping hours to put new information into long term memory storage.4)To remember a long string of letters or numbers such as a telephone number, break the information up into small chunks of two or three numbers or letters at a time, such as 555 ? 216 - 9827. Most people will find it very hard to remember 9 or 10 numbers in a row, but they can easily remember two or three numbers in a row.

5)When you need to learn and remember something, give yourself time to review the same material the next day for a few minutes and then a week later for a few minutes. Repetition and review will help your brain remember the material better.6)When you are studying a lot of material, schedule a break every forty minutes to get up and walk and do something completely different. When you sit down to study again, your brain will be more refreshed and better able to pay attention.7)When you are trying to study something, give yourself plenty of time to understand it and review it several times. Cramming at the last minute doesn't work very well.

8)Give your brain a good workout by practicing memorization as a fun exercise. Every few days, pick a new poem or favorite passage to memorize, and then write it out or speak it out loud.9)Get a basic children's arithmetic book with simple number exercises such as 1 + 8 = ___ or 5 X 3 = ___ and commit to doing fifty such calculations every day as quickly as you can. Research has shown that quickly doing very simple arithmetic problems activates a lot of your brain.10)Reduce the stress in your life by simplifying your schedule, delegating more tasks to others, getting regular physical exercise and practicing daily meditation.

Long term stress can interfere with your ability to concentrate and to think clearly, and with your ability to form memories or to recall them later.11)Get yourself a study buddy or a conversation partner, and try teach the other person what you are learning. This is a good way to signal your brain that what you are learning is important and you will remember more.

12)Learn how to create and use mind maps to organize your information. Many people can learn better by using mind maps than by writing out notes the traditional way.13)Make up little rhymes and songs to help you remember important information.

It's often a lot easier to remember facts that have been made into a song or a rhyme, such as "Thirty days hath September, April, June and November".14)Your brain will remember things a lot better if you are breathing deeply in a relaxed way. Instead of just breathing shallowly from the upper part of your chest, learn to breathe smoothly from your belly, using your diaphragm muscle to move the air in and out.15)Include a lot of berries in your diet that have dark red and blue colored skins.

In an experiment where aging rats were fed a diet high in blueberries, their memory losses reversed and they grew new brain cells.16)When you need to remember several unrelated items, use the first letter of each word and try to make a word out of it that will help you remember them. For example, if you need to buy bread, milk, apples, ink and bananas, you could use the first letter of each word to create the word "BAMBI" to jog your memory.17)Focus on doing one task at a time and concentrating on one topic at a time. When you try to do too many things at once, your mind will be distracted and it will be difficult to perform every task as well as you need to, and difficult to remember what you need to remember.18)Your brain is about 85 % water, so it is easily dehydrated.

Try to avoid drinking too much coffee and too many pop drinks and instead, give your brain the hydration it craves by drinking half a fluid ounce of water for every pound of your body weight each day.

By: Royane Real