0818 5 Simple Tricks to Sharpen Thinking and Memory
5 Simple Tricks to
Sharpen Thinking and Memory Skills
Repeat
• One of the golden rules of learning and memory is repeat, repeat, repeat.
• The brain also responds to novelty so repeating something in a different way or at a different time will make the most of the novelty effect and allow you to build stronger memories.
Organize
• A day planner or smart phone calendar can help you keep track of appointments and activities and can also serve as a journal in which you write anything that you would like to remember.
• Writing down and organizing information reinforces learning.
• Review current and previous day’s entries at breakfast and dinner.
• If you use a planner and not a smart phone, keep it in the same spot at home and take it with you whenever you leave.
Visualize
• Learning faces and names is a particularly hard task for most people.
• In addition to repeating a person’s name, you can also associate the name with an image.
• Visualization strengthens the association you are making between the face and the name. • For example: Link the name Sandy with the image of a beach, and imagine Sandy on the beach.
Cue
• When you are having difficulty recalling a particular word or fact, you can cue yourself by giving related details or “talking around” the word, name, or fact.
Other practical ways to cue include:
Using alarms or a kitchen timer to remind you of tasks or appointments.
Placing an object associated with the task you must do in a prominent place at home. For example, if you want to order tickets to a play, leave a newspaper ad for the play near your telephone or computer.
Group
• When you’re trying to remember a long list of items, it can help to group the items in sets of three to five. • This strategy capitalizes on organization and building associations, and helps to extend the capacity of our short-term memory by chunking information together instead of trying to remember each piece of information independently.
• For example: If you have
Sharpen Thinking and Memory Skills
Repeat
• One of the golden rules of learning and memory is repeat, repeat, repeat.
• The brain also responds to novelty so repeating something in a different way or at a different time will make the most of the novelty effect and allow you to build stronger memories.
Organize
• A day planner or smart phone calendar can help you keep track of appointments and activities and can also serve as a journal in which you write anything that you would like to remember.
• Writing down and organizing information reinforces learning.
• Review current and previous day’s entries at breakfast and dinner.
• If you use a planner and not a smart phone, keep it in the same spot at home and take it with you whenever you leave.
Visualize
• Learning faces and names is a particularly hard task for most people.
• In addition to repeating a person’s name, you can also associate the name with an image.
• Visualization strengthens the association you are making between the face and the name. • For example: Link the name Sandy with the image of a beach, and imagine Sandy on the beach.
Cue
• When you are having difficulty recalling a particular word or fact, you can cue yourself by giving related details or “talking around” the word, name, or fact.
Other practical ways to cue include:
Using alarms or a kitchen timer to remind you of tasks or appointments.
Placing an object associated with the task you must do in a prominent place at home. For example, if you want to order tickets to a play, leave a newspaper ad for the play near your telephone or computer.
Group
• When you’re trying to remember a long list of items, it can help to group the items in sets of three to five. • This strategy capitalizes on organization and building associations, and helps to extend the capacity of our short-term memory by chunking information together instead of trying to remember each piece of information independently.
• For example: If you have