First of all, why do we forget?
There are a handful of reasons why we forget things that we want to remember. None of them make it any less annoying during an exam; when you can’t think of the answers that you know you’ve studied. Or when you forget your grocery list and go home without all the ingredients you need to cook dinner. A common ground we all can relate to is the desire to improve our memory skills.
Nevertheless there are four major ways your brain tosses aside information. All of which lead to the loss of a memory. Sometimes you don’t store the memory properly from the get-go, and other times you simply can’t retrieve the memory when you try to recall it. Interference from past memories can also make you forget. Sometimes we even actively try to forget things that are upsetting or traumatic.
Don’t Forget Nutrition Plays A Key Role
As you can imagine, a healthy brain leads to better memory skills. There are a lot of foods out there that are beneficial to your brain, containing a lot of omega-3s. Omega-3 is a fatty acid that your body can’t produce on it’s own but can help your health. The body uses it in all kinds of functions like keeping the brain and heart healthy and lowering your risk of dementia and arthritis. This essential element of your diet can be found in most fish and some fat rich plants such as salmon, anchovies, and chia seeds. If you’re curious about other sources of Omega-3s, here are 12 foods that are very high in Omega-3.
Techniques to Boost Your Memory Skills
We have often have trouble remembering certain things because they just seem like unrelated bits of information that we may not need. However there are a few tried and true methods of improving your memory skills to do just that. Some of the most highly recommended memory boosting methods are based on giving structure to those random bits of information that you need to study and memorize.
When it comes to brain training there are a few different methods to be used, which one you like is all about what you’re trying to learn along with what feels right. One popular method recommended by memory champions like Boris Nikolai Konrad is known as the Method of Loci.
The “method of loci”—sometimes called the Memory Palace—is a systematic memory technique that dates back to the days of ancient Greece.
This method involves boosting your ability to remember a list of information, like a list of terms for language or science studies. This is done by using your spacial memory of your house or your body. The things you want to remember are given specific places or parts . Then to recall them you go through the mental version of the house or the list of body parts and find the memories where you left them.
Another method that’s based on visualization is the peg system. For this one you are supposed to envision your need-to-learn study topics. Once you’ve got it you can imagine you’re placing a picture of them on a series of pegs. Sort of like hanging pictures on a long wall in a row, inside your head. After studying the picture and which number peg it is for a while, you can recall them much better than by typical studying practices.
The Memory Skills Difference May Be In A Pen
When you use a pen and paper to write something down it’s much more retainable than typing it. This study shows it can be much more effective to write something down as opposed to typing it. Writing leads to better memory retention and better understanding of the information and context. The reason why is that typing tends to lead to less memory making and more mindless processing. So if you’re really trying to learn from that lecture, try swapping your laptop out for a notebook.
Time is too precious to spend learning something just to let it slip away. Make sure to take some time everyday to boost your brain power. In return you’ll better retain and improve your memory. You might be surprised at how much information you can retain when you really work for it.
