Want to Improve Your Memory? Try These Unexpected Tips.

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Highlights

  • PLR technique: pause, link, and rehearse. (View Highlight)
  • Put meetings in your phone’s calendar (be detailed about who you’re meeting, where, and why) and make sure alerts are turned on, set reminders, and take photos of events to refer to later. “Go back to those pictures,” Ranganath says. Don’t just take a photo and let it languish in your camera roll forever. “Anything you can do to revisit unique moments will bring back all sorts of other stuff.” (View Highlight)
  • Dellis assigns vivid images to whatever he’s trying to remember, be it a number or an address. Maybe if you don’t want to forget to grab cheese at the grocery store, imagine a giant, incredibly stinky hunk of fromage. Dellis will sometimes pinch himself or say a unique mantra when putting down his keys so he’ll remember the bizarre thing he did in the moment. (View Highlight)
  • But if you study or reflect on things you want to remember, the more likely these memories will be strengthened, Schacter says. Again, looking at images or videos you took from a particularly enjoyable dinner with friends is a way to better commit these events to memory. (View Highlight)
  • Dellis recommends spending five minutes before bed recalling what happened that day. Did you see a beautiful sunset? Did your kid have a funny retort to a simple question? Did you eat something delicious? Replay small but lovely occurrences you’d like to savor. “The more you do that, over time you realize you’ll actually be able to remember more details of your life (View Highlight)