Experiencing forgetfulness is a normal part of getting older — memory can begin declining as early as your 30s — but that doesn’t make it any less frustrating when you find yourself in the middle of a room with absolutely no idea why you entered it.
Experts emphasize that we shouldn’t waste too much time worrying about what we can’t remember. In reality, we’re not supposed to remember everything.
“Contrary to popular belief, the neural mechanisms of memory were not cobbled together to remember the name of the guy we met at that thing,” neuroscientist Charan Ranganath, director of the memory and plasticity program at the University of California, Davis, told Fast Company. “Memory is the process by which our brains extract what’s important — that is, information that helps us make sense of an uncertain and ever-changing world.”
To strengthen this process — as with most aspects of physical or mental health — you’ll want to first address your sleep and exercise habits, stress levels, and diet. Beyond nurturing your mind-body connection, there are helpful tips and techniques you can put into practice to improve your recall. Scroll down for five of them.
Pay Attention
We promise we’re not starting off glib here. This advice might seem obvious, but a huge element of “forgetting” information involves not really paying attention in the first place. With so much going on around us, it can take extra effort to truly focus.
When we’re talking to someone new or in an important meeting, our internal monologues are often running at full force: We’re thinking about what to say next or whether what we just said made any sense.
“Focus your mind,” psychiatrist Gary Small, author of The Memory Bible, told CNBC. “Take the time to pay attention — if you’re distracted, the information you want to recall later will never get into your brain’s memory storage file cabinets.”
We often think we’ve forgotten something when we never created the memory to begin with — an act that requires “the neural input of attention,” neuroscientist Lisa Genova explained to Good Housekeeping.
… And Say It Out Loud
Another way to ensure you’re encoding that memory is by stating what you’re doing aloud.
“Try to be mindful and give things a moment’s attention — even say it out loud, because then you’re giving your auditory cortex a chance to have more input: ‘I’m putting my glasses on the kitchen counter’ before you walk away,” Genova told the outlet. “Then you’re actually creating a memory.”
This tip doesn’t just apply to placing items around the house or learning someone’s name. A 2017 study from the University of Waterloo determined that reading materials aloud to yourself helps retain information long-term. Researchers dubbed this the “production effect.”
“This study confirms that learning and memory benefit from active involvement,” co-author Colin M. MacLeod said in a news release. “When we add an active measure or a production element to a word, that word becomes more distinct in long-term memory, and hence more memorable.”
Challenge Yourself Daily
If you think of memory like a muscle, it makes sense that exercising that muscle would strengthen it. To that end, neurologist Richard Restak recommends creating daily challenges for yourself. Restak has written over 20 books on the mind, including The Complete Guide to Memory: The Science of Strengthening Your Mind.
He told The New York Times a great way to do this is by assigning yourself things to memorize, like grocery lists. When you get to the store, first try to recall the items you wrote down. “Try to see the items in your mind,” he said, and only consult the list at the end, before you leave.
Restak also suggests navigating around town without GPS, or playing games like bridge, chess, or 20 Questions to challenge yourself.
Create Associations
The Baker/baker paradox is a phenomenon first highlighted in a 1987 paper called “Putting names to faces.” Study participants were asked to recall the names and occupations of 16 unfamiliar faces. The results showed that recalling occupations is easier than recalling names, even when the occupation and name are the same. For example: It’s more likely to forget that someone’s surname is Baker than to forget that the person is a baker.
That’s because names are somewhat arbitrary, while occupations come with more context — the idea of a baker conjures up images of doughnuts, bread, or a favorite bakery.
To use this, create associations that imbue names, dates, or other information with more context than they’d otherwise have. Try connecting them to songs, movies, or mental pictures — like imagining a person named Leo wearing leopard print.
Elaborate and Rehearse
Practice makes perfect, but not just any kind of practice. According to Verywell Health, “elaborative rehearsal” is one of the most effective means of encoding information into your long-term memory.
Several strategies involve linking new information to what you already know. This is different from rote memorization and similar to creating associations.
One method is rephrasing material into your own words, especially useful for scientific or esoteric vocabularies.
For example, if you read that atherosclerosis is the deposit of fatty plaques on artery walls, but plaques is a new term for you, you might reword this to: “Atherosclerosis is when fat and cholesterol harden inside arteries, the blood vessels that carry blood away from your heart.”
To cement the knowledge, explain it in your own words to someone else.
Learn more about elaborative rehearsal strategies here.
