Top 7 Tips For A Better Memory

Do you have trouble remember all that you have to do in a day? Can't remember names of people you just met? Then this is the article you need to read which can help you improve your memory.

1: Eat Right

A proper diet is key to a healthy brain, good concentration, and a good memory. Stick with fruits, vegetables, healthy fats, and superfoods like Acai (see 5 Reasons Why Acai Superfood Is Good For You). Skip sugar and processed foods. This isn't rocket science, you know what's good for you and what's not, it's just a matter of willpower.

2: Sleep Well

Getting a good night's sleep has so many health benefits while repeatedly missing sleep or not getting a truly restful sleep has proven to be bad for our stress levels and overall health. Research has shown that people who sleep well can actually improve their memory. On the flip side, a single night of only 4-6 hours of sleep can negatively impact your ability to think clearly the next day. Having trouble sleeping? Read 10 Ways To Sleep Better, The Secret To Falling Asleep Fast, and Better Sleep With Cherry Juice.

3: Exercise

This is another thing that's just good for your overall health but also has ties to memory improvement as well. Pick out a daily routine that's right for you and stick with it, even if it's only 20 minutes long. Try an aerobic exercise that gets your blood pumping. Generally speaking, what's good for your heart is good for your brain. Planning to start exercising when you haven't before? Go slow and consider consulting with your doctor first.

4: Try MDs (Mnemonic Devices)

A mnemonic device is a fancy phrase for a technique that anyone can use to remember something more easily. It's like a simple code for your brain. Chances are good you know that the colors of the rainbow are red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet. Right? If so, it's probably because you know the mnemonic device known as Roy G. Biv where each letter of that fake name stands for a letter in the rainbow.

Or maybe you know this phrase: My Very Excited Mother Just Served Us Nine Pies. That's the order of the planets in our solar system: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. Try it with anything else you need to remember.

5: Lower Stress

Stress is all around us and it can lead to a number of health problems if it's not kept in check. For some, the simple act of taking a bus or train to work is a stressful start to their day (see Dealing With The Stress Of Public Transit). Regardless of the cause, a stressed out brain may have trouble remembering what you want it to so be sure avoid stressful situations. Not sure how to do that? Then read Reducing Stress and Reducing And Managing Stress to get started.

6: Pay Attention

Are you one of those people who has the condition that causes them to forget people's names? Well, as it turns out, that really isn't a "condition" at all. It likely just means you weren't paying attention and/or just didn't really care what their name was. We all have so much going on in our heads at any given point that when we meet somebody new we often just aren't paying attention. A simple change in attitude is all it takes.

When you meet somebody listen to their name, and as you shake their hand or wave hello repeat their name allowed. "Hi Bob, pleased to meet you", for example. In your head, repeat that same name 3 more times. Bob. Bob. Bob. If that still isn't enough, pick out a strong feature on their face or body. Does Bob have a Bulbous head or nose maybe? Does Bob have really Brown hair or Brown eyes? Associate something with Bob using the first letter of their name that will help you remember Bob later on.

7: Mind Palaces

The mind palace technique can be an incredibly powerful way to remember just about anything. It requires practice to really get good at it but anyone can benefit from this system. If you have never heard of Dominic O'Brien, just know that he memorized 54 packs of playing cards, which is 2,808 cards total, after looking at each card only once. He correctly named their order, making only 8 errors.

The system has been around for ages but has been popularized in more recent times, even making a big appearance on the BBC's Sherlock Holmes series. Sound like this is going to be complex? Not at all, one might even say it's elementary. The idea is that we're good at remember places such as the inside of your home and what's in it. So you'll use that to remember information that get placed into your home (memory palace).

Start by picking your palace. For many, this is their home. It could be your work place, the town you live in, or any other place you're very familiar with. A place you can visualize instantly in your head.

Mentally map your palace. Visualize yourself walking through the place you picked. For your home you would start as you enter whichever door you normally enter from. Do a virtual walkthrough and analyze everything and make mental notes of the items that catch your attention the most. You need to repeat this process to really commit it all to your memory. Walkthrough in real life as need too, then mentally in your head to really make sure you see all of the details.

Add memory pegs. You've mapped your palace out so all it needs now are the items you want to remember, which are the memory pegs. Each item you need to remember becomes a visual image in your head and place in your palace. Start when you first enter your palace and place the peg.

The key to the peg is that it needs to be something really crazy or larger than life. If you need to remember to clean the pool when you get home then in your palace you could imagine walking into a flooded entry way full of dirty pool water for example. Want to remember to do the laundry after that? Then picture a 20 foot tall pile of dirty laundry stacking up at the next point in your palace. You want to tell a story with crazy visuals, sticking with the order you tour your palace in.

Tour your palace. Once you've created this crazy visual story, you simply need to take a mental tour of your memory palace to remember everything you wanted. When you get home from work, enter your mental memory palace starting at the front door. You'll visualize that mess of pool water and then the tall pile of laundry and remember what needs to be done.

As you can see, creating and using the memory palace technique is very simple and only takes practice to master.