How to Improve Your Memory

Yesterday, we had a brief introduction on how to improve our memory at the networking coffee. I thought I would expand on that and provide some more helpful information:
Memory is the mental activity of recalling information that you have learned or experienced. Short term memory is meant to be fragile. Your brain retains the information just long enough for you to use it. You only need to remember something like the prices of items in a store for a few minutes.
Long term memory involves information you make an effort (concious or unconcioius) to retain because it is meaningful to you, you need it, or it made an emotional impression.
Step 1 - Convince yourself that you do have a good memory that will improve. It is hard to be motivated when you convince yourself that your memory is bad.
Step 2 - Keep your brain active. Regularly exercising your brain keeps it growing and spurs the development of new nerve connections that can help improve memory. By developing new mental skills, especially complex ones like learning a new language or how to play a musical instrument, and challenging your brain to puzzles, you can improve your brains physiological functioning.
Step 3 - Exercise daily. Regular aerobic exercise improves circulation throughout the body including the brain and can help ward off memory loss that comes with aging. Exercise also makes you more alert and relaxed, thereby improving your memory uptake.
Step 4 - Reduce stress. Chronic stress can make remembering more difficult. Prolonged stress can damage your brain, affect your health and your memory. Relax, breathe, practice yoga or introduce stretching exercises into your routine.
Step 5 - Eat well and eat right. A healthy diet contributes to a healthy brain. Foods containing antioxidants (broccoli, blueberries, spinich) and Omega-3 fatty acids appear to promote healthy brain functioning.
Step 6 - Take better pictures. Often we forget things not because our memory is bad, but rather because our observational skills need work. If you concentrate and make a concious effort to remember things, you'll do much better.
Step 7 - Give yourself time to form a memory. Memories are very fragile in the short term and distractions can make you quickly forget something as simple as a phone number. The key to avoid losing memories before you can even form them is to be able to focus on the thing to be remembered for a while without thinking about other things. Avoid distractions and complicated tasks and just focus on what you want to remember.
Step 8 - Create vivid, memorable images. You remember information more easily if you can visualize it. To keep the association strong, make the images shocking or emotional rather than too simple.
Step 9 - Repeat things you need to learn. The more times you hear, see or think about something, the more surely you'll remember it. Repeat is out loud or silently. Write it down. Think about it.
Step 10 - Group things you need to remember. Random lists of things such as a shopping list can be difficult to remember. To make it easier, categorize the individual things form the list. If you remember that you wanted to buy four kinds of vegetables, you'll fin it easier to remember all four.
Step 11 - Organize your life. Keep items that you frequently need such as keys in the same place every time. Use a planner to keep track of appointments and due dates. Keep phone numbers in one address book or cell phone. Improved organization can help free up your powers of concentration so you can remember less routine things.
Step 12 - Try meditation. People who practice mindfulness are able to focus better. Researchers believe regular meditation thickens the cerebral cortex in the brain, increases the blood flow to that region, and enhances attention span, focus and memory.
Step 13 - Sleep well. A good night's sleep affect's the brain's ability to recall recently learned information.
Step 14 - Learn mnemonics. These are memory aids that increase your ability to quickly learn and recall anything. Techniques include: Visual images (a microphone to remember the name Mike); Acronyms (initials of words you are trying to remember that spell out a real word such as FACE for figs, apples, celery, eggplant); Loci (to remember a speech, associate each part of the speech with a landmark in a route you know well, such as your commute to work).
Step 15 - Learn a new poem each week. It doesn't have to be long and simply learning it by heart will improve your memory hugely. You should soon find it becomes easier as you do it more and more.