How to Improve Memory-5 Steps

How's Your Memory?

Have you ever experienced "brain fog"? Have you ever forgotten something that happened only moments ago? Do you have trouble retaining information that you have read? Answer "yes" to any of the previous questions and you are qualified to take the 10 step memory enhancement program!

5 Step Memory Enhancement Program

If you are serious about improving your memory and actually want to see some significant results, the first major step you will have to take is improving your diet.

Just like the rest of the organs in your body, your brain requires a proper amount of nutrients along with minimal (zero if possible) amounts of toxic/unhealthy substances. This means no more donuts, hamburgers, refined sugars, fried foods, etc.

In fact, one of the best diets you could be eating is the Vegan Diet. This diet emphasizes whole, and more importantly, raw foods.

You have a greater intake of fresh fruit and vegetables while minimizing or completely removing altogether their cooked counterparts. If you wish to have a healthy mind and brain, you must have a healthy body.

A healthy body comes from a healthy diet. One of my favorite diets has to be the raw food diet. It is very delicious and you can find plenty of information about it all over the internet.

Along with a well balanced diet, exercise is vitally important. All of that food and energy you consumed now has to be put to good use.

Spending 45 minutes to an hour a day exercising is enough to contribute to good health. Exercising improves your heart health which in turn improves blood circulation.

This causes an increase in the amount of oxygen your brain receives thereby increasing it's functionality and efficiency. Exercise also helps rid your body of toxins that could potentially be harming your brain. Another bonus is an overall healthy and good-looking body!

Speed reading is a less commonly used form of reading that is gaining some momentum in terms of popularity.

Speed reading has been shown to increase retention and decrease the amount of time it takes for you to cover material. Although it is not a good idea to use this in more rigorous fields, such as mathematics or physics, it is great for literature and any other text that doesn't require in depth thought and practice.

The general idea behind speed reading is that, since we first started learning to speak, our brain has become so used to talking at a specific rate that it actually "reads to itself" while you read. You know what I'm talking about.

That little voice inside your head that seems to read everything you see on the page. It turns out that you don't actually need to sound everything out in your own head.

Speed reading teaches you to read without thinking about every word you read. It permits you to read entire paragraphs in seconds and pick up the general idea rather than reading every word.

More on speed reading can be found by simply Googling "how to speed read" or "learn speed reading".

Few people engage in learning the proper way. Reading any book or text can become boring after a while. After all, if you haven't learned to speed read, it's like listening to a monotone voice inside your head.

The words become rather useless pieces of information after a while and you get the blank "in one ear and out the other" stare on your face. Make your learning experience a more enjoyable one.

There is a reason you remember the good and bad times with your friends. Do you remember anything you did on days you were bored? Probably not much.

Your brain stores information based on an "importance" scale. It rates this scale based on how you feel at the time and then decides which memories to store and which to omit.

You need to trick your brain into thinking that what you're doing is incredibly important and life changing (and it should be! You are, after all, learning). To do this, you need to find a way to incorporate as many senses as possible.

For example, when I'm studying math or physics, I like to record myself speaking into a microphone while at the same time, I use a Wacom Bamboo tablet to draw out what I think on my computer (similar to KhanAacademy).

After recording, I play it back to myself. So, all in all, I have used touch (the pen and tabelt), visual aids (the drawings on my computer), sound (speaking into the mic about what I'm thinking and my ideas), and taste (this ones a joke).

As you can see, your brain will likely find this more appealing and amusing than simply staring into a white piece of paper with black markings in it. Try it!

It has been shown that your brain is able to effectively memorize content so long as the areas of study don't change rapidly. Let me give you an example of what I mean.

Say that you have just begun studying calculus. You have spent about 15 minutes studying and have completed one subsection in your textbook. Then, all of a sudden, you get distracted and start studying something in chemistry or reading something else on the internet.

You have now lost a lot of what you have learned. Your brain seems to like consistency. If you're studying a specific topic, stick with it until your next break.

After your study break, if you wish, you may change your subject of study. Make sure that you do problems and exercise sets (if applicable) during your study session.

This will help incorporate what you have read and increase your retention. Practice! Practice! Practice!

This technique is particularly helpful when trying to memorize something. It's not very complicated and has been shown to be effective.

How is it Done?

First of all, you have to create a visual theme in your head. It has to be some sort of place that you can "store" all of your information.

Pick some place that is common or that you enjoy. It will be easier to get started if you know the location you've created inside your mind. Once you have picked a theme, it is time to start adding what you need to remember.

First, find out exactly how many bits of information you are trying to remember. If it's a grocery list, simply count the number of items on the list to figure out your "memory number".

This number is used in order to help you recall exactly how many things you have to remember so that nothing can be forgotten so long as you can recall this number(it shouldn't be too difficult considering it's only one number).

Once you have the number, create a "physical" (mental) picture of it and place it somewhere in the open within your created theme. Now, this is the important part.

Start reading from your list to figure out what needs to be remembered. Say the first item on your list is "remember to buy eggs".

In order to remember this, you could place a chicken within your theme, or, better yet, you could place your favorite omelet. Remember the smell when you place this in your theme.

Find a way to make every item in your list personal so that It becomes easy to recall. What I mean by this is, if you have to remember to buy wine for a night of dining at home with your wife, don't simply envision a wine bottle. Try to incorporate things about your wife.

Place a wine bottle along with a necklace she wears, or maybe even her wedding ring, etc. This will mainly help in getting you to recall exactly what it was you needed to remember in the first place.

Once you have placed all of these items, in some way, within your themed area, you are ready to recall. Note that, if order is important, don't worry, there is a method to resolve that as well.

To solve this problem, simply place the objects of you thoughts in some specific order in a unique way within your theme. What I mean by this is, once you have created all your visual aids and placed them within your theme, you need to find some sort of personally significant way to arrange them so that they appear in a consecutive rehearsed manner.

If you had, say, 7 items on your list, you could arrange them by placing the ones that need to be remembered first closer to where you stand.

Don't forget that your theme can be dynamic. You can incorporate movement and time as an arranger of objects if you wish. If you have done all of this, you should be well on your way to memorizing using the association technique!

Note*: Although this is a great memorization technique, I recommend it only to be used for remembering things such as lists and tasks. Don't use it to memorize formulas in mathematics or physics. It's not because you can't, but because you shouldn't.

If you learn to understand the formulas and the meaning behind them, you won't need to memorize them, as understanding is the ultimate form of memory. This is just my opinion.

Thank you to Nell Rose for reminding me of this technique! It is greatly appreciated!

One technique that I use in order to help me retain the information I digest throughout the day is Lucid dreaming.

If you don't know anything about lucid dreaming or don't know enough, I suggest you read this hub.

Anyways, I use the freedom of being able to do what I wish in my dreams to create any sort of object, smell, touch, feeling, I want.

In more detail, I create the objects of my study (electrons, neutrons, mathematical objects) and use my dreams to help me understand them with more of an involved experience. After all, the function of dreaming has been shown to be associated with memory retention.

Let me give you an example of what I'm talking about. Let's say that you spent most of your time in the last 24 hours studying chemistry. Once you go to sleep and become lucid, you can do what isn't possible in reality.

You can fabricate the objects of your thought. Create the molecules you learned of and have them react in large scale right before your eyes. Create black holes and watch them destroy entire planets or stars!

Lucid dreaming really brings out your creativity. On the plus side, when you learn to lucid dream, you also become somewhat of an expert in dream recall (remembering your dreams in great detail).

If you remember your dreams, you remember what you studied. If you remember what you studied, then you have solved your problems...

If you have the time on your hands to learn lucid dreaming, I highly recommend it as it has been an exciting and favorable experience for me.

There are plenty of memory enhancement websites all across the internet. One that I find particularly useful is called Lumosity.com. It is completely free to set up an account and use basic features. However, if you want to unlock premium features, then you will have to buy a premium membership. Prices will vary so be sure to check them out!