You are not a circus elephant
Don’t believe the myth. Believing that you have a bad memory is the first mistake. Don’t convince yourself that you’ve got a bad memory by default, no matter what people say. All you need to do is harness the memory capabilities that are already present. You see, people don’t develop a bad memory all of sudden, it usually takes time and effort to convince oneself of this. Take the circus elephant for instance.
If you’ve ever been to a circus, you’ll know that the elephants are usually tied up in chains starting from a young age. It lies in the elephants nature to want to escape and it most certainly tries in the beginning. But after a while, when it’s been chained up for a couple of years (it’s pretty horrible when you think of it), it simple gives up. If you were to remove it’s chains it would in most cases NOT try to escape. Now why is this?
Well, you see the elephant has now already convinced itself that fighting back is fruitless and thus it still believes that the chains are there. There’s a lesson to be learned here. You need to remove these invincible chains that are blocking you from remembering things before you can proceed to improve your memory.
2. Throw away the lifelines
Lifelines are the things you hold on to just in case you were to forget. For instance, if you go shopping and keep a grocery list that’s you lifeline or if someone gives you their number and you write it down that’s also a lifeline. By relying on these notes and applications you make less use of your memorization capabilities. Obviously there are times when something must be written down due to it’s importance but in most cases you can go without doing this. So the next time you’re out shopping or a friend gives you a number, don’t write it down and instead try to remember it. The more you do this, the more your brain will start to putting things into memory again.
3. Repeat it, repeat it
It’s extremely difficult to remember something when you’ve only heard it once. Why do you remember your own phone number? Is it because it’s “easier” or because you’ve said it out loud so many times it has stuck in your memory. This is exactly what we want to achieve. If you have something important to remember, always repeat it to yourself as often as possible and if you could, try to talk about it often as well. When you discuss an idea, it’s easier for your brain to remember what was being discussed than simply what you had in your head.
4. Eat well, drink well yada yada
We all know this but how easy it is to forget! Don’ eat to much nor to little or you won’t be able to remember this riddle. Moderation is the key. If you eat too much you’ll feel tired and drowsy and if you eat to little, you’ll feel hungry and fatigued. Both these things are great obstacles standing in your way towards a better memory.
5. Organize your life
Keep things organized. It doesn’t have to be ordered in the way that other people view as organized as long as it fulfills the purpose. The more organized you become, the keener you become to remembering things. That’s why I recommend you to make mental lists in your head. By organizing information you make it easier to recall in the future. Always try to keep it simple and straightforward.
6. Practice
There’s really no super simple technique to drastically improve your memory. In order to improve it you need both patience and a lot of practice. The more you practice, the better. I hope you enjoyed these tips of mine, if you want to learn some advanced memorization techniques I would deeply recommend you to take a look at the Study Guide PRO. It contains a whole section on advanced techniques on how to improve ones memory.