Unlock the power of your mind with eight proven strategies to enhance memory retention. Dive into the world of cognitive science and explore practical techniques that can help you remember anything, anytime, anywhere.
Strategies for Remembering
Become interested in what you’re learning
- Find a way to leverage your visual memory
- Create a mental memory tree
- Construct big branches first, then leaves
- Branches and leaves should carry labels that are personally meaningful to you in some way, and the organization of the facts should be logical
- Associate what you’re trying to learn with what you already know
- Write out facts in lists
- Make yourself learn the lists actively instead of passively
Take ibuprofen
One study suggests a daily dose decreases the risk of developing dementia
- However, the risk reduction appears too modest to justify the increased risk of stomach bleeding that accompanies ibuprocfen’s daily use, so I do not recommend this.
- If you’re already taking ibuproxen for some other condition, like arthritis, this might be an added benefit.
Memory may be like muscle tone
The more the mind is used, the more robust memory may become
- “Use it or lose it” seems to apply to the mind as well
- As I’ve moved on from my medical school days to reach early (very early) middle age, I’ve found myself experiencing benign forgetfulness far more than I like
Why Memory Malfunctions
Benign forgetfulness is the name we give to a process that occurs with normal aging in which a memory remains intact but our ability to retrieve it becomes temporarily impaired
- As long as this is age-appropriate and doesn’t significantly interfere with normal functioning, there is no increased risk for progression to dementia
- However, the trick lies in assessing what is and isn’t “age-appropriate.” Formal testing is sometimes necessary in ambiguous cases.
Decreasing Deterioration
Exercise your body and mind
- Evidence suggests this not only retards normal age-related memory deterioration but reduces the risk of developing dementia
- It doesn’t even have to be vigorous exercise-just 150 minutes of walking per week has been shown to be of benefit
- Do things that work the mind to delay or prevent memory loss
