How To Improve Short Term Memory

Today, we live very hectic lives. We have complicated our lives with so many ambitions that we have to do a lot of things every day. Due to this, we tend to forget some small things like names, pending tasks, passwords, etc. We seriously need to think over how to improve our short term memory as this problem is affecting more and more people with each passing day. It might sometimes bring seriously disastrous consequences, if we forget important things. For instance, if we forget something important, while doing our job or business, it might even leave an indelible mark on our career.

While it is very difficult to simplify our lives given the current scenario, we can try to take some steps to improve our short term memory. This will prevent us from forgetting things and making mistakes. Yes, the time is very precious and one needs to make the best use of it. If you feel that you often forget things and there is an urgent need to save both your time and energy then I am sure below tips on improving short term memory would definitely help you. So, we can use the following ideas to boost or aid our short term memory:

1. Boost your memory with association: When you store something in your memory, you will tend to forget it, if you try to remember that thing as a single, unique item to store n your memory. However, the chances of recollecting it are more, if you remember it in association with something else. For example, if you meet a man named Harry, you can mentally associate him with Harry Potter either by thinking that this man looks like Harry Potter or not. You can also use some other characteristics of Harry Potter to associate with this man. This will aid your memory greatly and the next time you see that man, the name Harry will immediately come to your mind.

2. Activating mind: We should always keep mind busy in various tasks like playing different games. Organizing things in your mind, even while playing, will help a lot. In a single time, our mind can memorize only 7 things, so organizing things in your memory is hard but a useful task to improve our short term memory. The most important part of memory is Attention. Choosing the most important thing, thinking and then focusing over it will create your personal attention with it. It will make it easier to remember these important things.

3. Writing down: Often, the best way to boost short term memory is to write down things we tend to forget. This has dual benefits. The first is, it is a proven fact that writing down helps one to remember things. These days, it is fairly common for people to write down important things such as tasks, dates, etc. Once we write down something with our own hands, our chances of forgetting are very less. Secondly, even supposing we forget it, we can always refer to our notes. So writing is a very useful method to aid memory.

4. Focus on one thing at a time: Trying to remember everything at a time is not possible for anyone. We can’t focus even on single and small things in that case. We can’t change our brain’s processing speed but we can enhance the capacity of our memory. Strong concentration or focus is required for every single single thing so that we can get all aspects related to that thing stored in our memory. Any future learning can be done by referring to previous study by correlating the things. Sounds, situations and devices will help a lot for the same. Apart from external things which we can use, we have some other methods also like strong focus and mental engagement. We should give ourselves some break if we have two different things to remember at a time. We should try to not get distracted till the first thing on which we were initially focusing on, is quite set in our memory. This is a good idea to improve short term memory.

5. Using gadgets: These days, everyone has gadgets such as cell phones, laptops, blackberrys, etc. So, we can easily use them to set reminders. This is especially useful for tasks, dates, events, etc. What is the point of having these gadgets, if we fail to make optimum use of them?

As mentioned in the beginning, we should keep ourselves always engaged in different tasks. Learning things with complete meaning and with example will make it easier for us to remember the things for a long time. Also, while learning new things, using references, examples, devices and sounds etc. will make it simple. Finally, to boost short term memory, it is important to slow down your pace in life, take proper and timely meals and get at least eight hours’ sleep on a daily basis. Above all, it is important to lead stress-free and joyous life.

Picture- Tao X