How To Increase Memory

I forgot! How many times have you heard that excuse or used it yourself? Sometimes it’s simply a poor excuse for failing to do something, but quite often it’s true. People forget. There are many highly technical explanations of why we fail to remember certain things: physical limitations, poor diet, lack of sleep, and aging, but for most otherwise healthy people forgetting results from a failure to adequately pay attention when the event to be remembered occurs. Learning how to increase memory can be critical to ensuring social and business success.

Most normal healthy people have little difficulty remembering important events in their lives. Everyone remembers where they were when the twin towers in New York City were destroyed on 9/11. Their long-term memory is excellent. A telephone number that was given to you by an associate an hour ago, however, is gone from memory. That’s a problem with short term memory. With most healthy people, this short-term memory problem is usually not caused by physical or mental defect; it’s behavioral.

If one has the habit of forgetting things, perhaps knowing how to increase memory involves making a few behavioral changes. Consider the following.

• Make a quiet personal pledge to modify behavior to focus upon remembering things and learning how to increase memory.
• Avoid distractions. Pay attention when people are speaking to you.
• When introduced to a stranger, repeat his name out loud at the time of the introduction. Match the name to a mental picture. When convenient, write the name down and review it several times.
• Don’t multitask when listening to someone who is giving you information. Focus upon the speaker’s words.
• Repeat quietly and, when not being observed, out loud new names, dates, and telephone numbers.
• When possible, write down information use over the long term. Then you needn’t remember the information, simply where you stored it.
• Keep a notebook handy. When you meet a new contact, record the name, perhaps covering by asking for an email address. If inconvenient to do so, mentally repeat the name or number until you can write it down
• Use all your senses, aural, oral, and visual to help remember information.

How to increase memory has spawned an abundance of real or presumed experts. Many of these experts recommend simple brain exercises as helpful in the long run for general memory improvement. While exercises such as crossword puzzles, cryptograms, and Mensa type puzzles are excellent for strengthening general mental skills, they are not the solution to the routine behavioral mistakes that many make in not fully using the strengths of their short term memories. If you wish to improve your memory and are in good mental and physical health, behavioral changes may be the answer; simple changes in your immediate behavior at the time the information to be remembered is given.