Top Tips To Improve Memory and Recall

Your memory is deeply impactful to your day-to-day life: it determines how you navigate the world. Working on your trained memory can only be a good thing, it can help everything- from name recall to long-term learning. But what is trained memory and how can you improve yours?

When you think about memory, you most likely think about natural memory. Natural memory refers to the natural ability of memory, that we all have to varying degrees. Trained memory, or memorisation, is something that we can get better at with time. Your natural memory abilities are mostly genetic, experts advise that even drastic lifestyle changes may only subtly enhance your capacity for natural memory. With trained memory, you can improve without limitations, and with enough hard work, your recollection skills will rapidly improve. As well as natural and trained memory, there are other types of memory too, including implicit/explicit memory, procedural memory, sensory memory, and short term/ long term memory.

Tips to improve your memory:

1. Slow things down – Concentration is a vital and often overlooked component of memory. You may have noticed that when you are particularly focused on a piece of information, it is easier to recall at a later date, whereas if you are in a noisy space or not in the right frame of mind when you are trying to memorise things, it may be easily forgotten. To improve your memory, try to slow things down, focusing on one thing at a time and working on your focus and concentration; it will make all the difference to your recall skills.
2. Engage with the material as much as possible – If you are trying to remember something by just reading or looking at it, it will make it much more difficult to remember at a later date. By testing yourself, speaking out loud and writing things down, you may be surprised by how enhanced your memorisation can become in a short time.
3. Lifestyle changes – Following lockdowns, we have new insights into how much lifestyle can impact memory. During the height of the pandemic, memory problems reached an all-time high, as people found themselves in a repetitive pattern with little stimulation and a lack of exercise. Luckily, this will not have a lasting effect, and memory can be improved by diversifying your lifestyle to include regular changes, more exercise and a healthier diet. All of these things keep your mind agile, a major key to improving your overall recall skills. Incorporating mind exercises such as sudoku, crosswords, or even general reading, may broaden your capacity to store and recall pieces of information.
4. Visualisation techniques – Association and visualisation are important parts of recall and memory. For example, if you are struggling to remember someone’s name, you may find it helpful to visualise the word in your head, or to think of an association that might help to remind you of the name at a later date.