6 Memory Strategies to Help You Feel Smarter
When you hear something one time and store it away as a memory, you have one reference point with which to draw out that fact. But the more organization of thought, the more connections to prior knowledge, and the more vivid you are with your memory strategies, the more “threads” you will have connected to that piece of information. This allows your brain to be quicker and more accurate at recall.
Whether you’re an adult trying to get better at remembering people’s names, a teen studying for exams, or a teacher or parent trying to help your child grasp spelling rules, here are 6 memory strategies to try:
Break It Into Chunks and Organize Logically
If you’re approaching a large body of information that you need to remember, just trying to learn it in one go is not going to be effective. Instead, take this approach:
- Intuitively break it into smaller pieces of information (in a way that makes sense to you)
- Find things that are alike and “sort” those together in your mind
- Find bits that you can apply to previous knowledge to form a connection
- Use some of the other tools listed below to make each fact, memory, name, or concept more vivid and memorable
These small steps take something large and daunting and create lots of smaller things that are actually easier to remember.
Use Visual Images
When you can “see” something in your mind, you are more likely to remember it. These pictures should be silly (or gross) or something memorable in order to make recalling them easier. As memory strategies go, this is one you can literally do anywhere or any time.
- Just met someone and want to remember their name? Instead of just focusing on their face, make a quick picture of them in your mind doing something that relates to it. (For example, if their last name is Carpenter, picture them with a hammer and toolbelt; if their first name is Alice, picture them as Alice in Wonderland. Use connections that are memorable for you or make sense based on their name!)
- Trying to remember facts for an exam or learn new vocabulary? Instead of memorizing long definitions or lists of words, turn these things into a movie in your mind. Involving actions, senses, and connections with these things will help them stick more easily.
- Helping your child learn to read? Visually showing different phonics or spelling rules in a creative way can help them remember more. For example, if you want them to remember that “ee” says the long E sound, draw a picture of an eel using these 2 letters. Every time they see two e’s together, that picture can remind them of the sound.
Put It To Music or Use a Mnemonic
Using songs, rhymes, imaginative connections, acronyms, or other similar tools can help make knowledge more easily accessible in your brain. These memory strategies are well-recognized, so it can be pretty easy to do a quick search for songs to help you learn facts (especially for younger kids). As an adult, you can find which strategies work best for you (and which ones you can do on the spot).
Write It Down By Hand (Typing Doesn’t Count!)
Taking notes by hand is more effective than typing for cementing new knowledge into your brain.
But interestingly, writing every word down verbatim actually makes recall worse. The key here is to take in the new knowledge, process it to deduce the main points, and put THAT in writing in your own words. As our learning experiences and interactions move online, be intentional about your hand-written notes as a strategy to help you remember more.
Make “Pegs” and Associations
As Joshua Foer (memory competition champion and author) puts it, the art of remembering efficiently is about “taking information that is lacking in context, lacking in meaning and figuring out a way to transform it so that it makes sense in the light of all the other things that you have floating around in your mind”
The ability to make associations, connect them to key pieces of knowledge, and use these connections to actively recall new things is a secret to helping you feel sharper, smarter, and more confident.
“Pegs” can be things like personal experiences, previously learned knowledge, or key facts that you have already committed to memory. These are things you can “hang” new knowledge on in order to help it become easier to recall. Becoming adept at forming these associations and building mental connections makes memorizing things easier. Let’s apply this to the examples we used earlier:
- For the adult who is trying to remember someone’s name: Maybe you just met someone named Malik and you have an uncle with that name. There’s your “peg” and “association” immediately!
- For the teen who is studying: If you’re trying to memorize dates or facts for a history class, for example, you can refer back to a movie you’ve seen or book you’ve read on the subject to have some associations.
- For the child who is learning to read: Having them drill and memorize phonics sounds and codes may seem redundant, but these become their “pegs” so every time a new rule is introduced or they encounter a new word, they have the knowledge bank to apply to it.
Use Spaced Repetition (And Don’t Cram!)
Actively quizzing yourself on new information refreshes the neural connections that you use to learn and remember. Don’t just stare at notes and expect to remember them. Close the book and quiz yourself: what do you really remember?
Actively doing this at various intervals makes it more likely that you are really learning the new information. Study for 10 minutes, quiz yourself and see how you do. Next time, give it a little longer between when you’re looking at the facts and when you quiz yourself. This helps new information move into the long-term storage area of your brain while still actively and intentionally remembering it.
Trying to cram in knowledge at the last minute leaves it jumbled, unprocessed, and stored in a way that is going to be harder for you to sort through when you need it most. Give your brain time to process, and make memory an intentional thing!
Study Strategies and Memory Tips from the Experts
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Our programs target memory skills and offer strategies to help you remember more, think faster, and learn more easily.
