10 Best Ways to Increase Memorization Abilities

1. Exercise More

During exercise, it’s not just a mere physical approach that comes into play. The brain and mind are also involved. In most cases of people suffering from obesity, you come to find a wide array of diseases resulting from their weight. These diseases not only affect their body but take the toll on brain function leading to serious and detrimental effects. On top of that, lack of regular exercise may lead to the formation of plaques in one’s arteries and cause cessation of proper blood flow and pumping ability of the heart in general. With an accumulation of plaques and their products, there are increased chances of heart attacks resulting from myocardial infarction due to loss of adequate blood supply to the heart’s muscles and myocytes. This, consequently, causes a reduction in the supply of nutrients and oxygen to the brain, compromising the brain’s functionality. To take preventive measures against this, it is prudent to do small exercises each day including the likes of short walks. This helps to improve your mental state and acuity. Swimming is also highly recommended.

2. Teach Someone Else

When you’re reading any material out loud, it’s been shown that memorization of that particular material is improved. On further extrapolation of this concept, psychologists have proven that when teaching new concepts, there is enhanced fetching of the memory of the taught information. You can borrow a leaf from this book and try teaching some concepts to friends or even study partners and you’ll be surprised at just how effective this method is.

3. Get A Good Night’s Sleep And Take Naps

Most people underestimate the power of having enough sleep. There are more chances of having better memory abilities after forging a consistent pattern of around seven to eight hours of sleep each day. When a person is asleep, their brain sets into action during the resting phase, when memories that have been piled up recently, firmly cement. Additionally, adequate sleep provides the entire spectrum of the nocturnal repetitive cycles that help in proper cognitive brain and body functioning during the time periods when one is awake. After getting to learn something new, it’s essential to take a nap because as the brain recharges, the memories go down to the memory bank with longer expiry dates and the brain extends its periods of being sharp.

4. Write It Down

There’s a popular saying among school kids that says, “If you don’t want it to get lost, write it down.” This is true no matter which level of study you find yourself in. By the simple act of writing down, you increase the chances of remembering something. The explanation behind all this is that with writing, there is an increased flow of oxygenated blood to the areas of the brain that are in charge of memory storage and it gives these parts a knack for remembering whatever it is that was ‘exercised’. Incorporate writing things down, be it in journals, blogs or even emails. These and many more other exercises increase your threshold of remembering and preserving information.

5. Eliminate Stressors And Seek Help For Depression (If You Have It)

Doctors and researchers in the medical field have proved that the things in your life that subject you to stress, negatively affect your memory keeping abilities. They waste away the brain parts responsible for memory storage. One of the major culprits of bringing about this brain damage is depression. It has been confused on many occasions with memory problems due to lack of healthy concentration spans. In many cases, if anything is done without concentration, there’s a high likelihood of not remembering whatever information you were supposed to retain. Depression results in a commensurate increase in cortisol levels in your blood stream and, in turn, in your brain. The rise of cortisol in the brain affects some sensitive areas, e. g. the major part called the hippocampus. This particular part is heavily involved in the storage of short term memories which means prolonged depression is likely to interfere with your abilities to remember new things. With all these in mind, it’s advised that for any form of depression, medical treatment is sought.

It’s been shown in countless researches from reliable sources that some certain genres of music are vital when it comes to the recollection of memories. If one listens to some song when trying to remember something, it can be dug out from the memory later by mentally playing the song. This shows that music could serve as one of the best cues meant for pouring out certain memories from the memory lane.

6. Visual Concepts

For most people to remember, they normally require having a visual image of whatever it is they are studying. It is, therefore, advisable to give special attention to charts, photographs, and pictures in general. If you find yourself in a scenario where you aren’t reading a book but need to remember the information, try making your own mental image. It also helps if you draw your very own pictures and charts while making use of highlighters and colors to piece together all the ideas that relate to each other in your notes.

7. Play Brain Games

It is widely known that with a declined use of the brain, there’s a resultant decline in the brain competence. This is mostly caused by refusing to challenge yourself. Research undertaken into the plasticity of the brain has shown that one of the best ways of cutting short this type of deterioration, is challenging your brain on a daily basis.

One of the most approved ways of challenging your brain is via taking part in brain games. They are widely and readily available online on websites like Brain HQ. Set aside around twenty minutes every day for them. With that being put to order, it’s also wise to note that you shouldn’t indulge in a particular task for more than from five to seven minutes. The biggest downside to playing games is that they increase the workload, especially if you have a busy schedule, but it’s a sacrifice worth making.

8. Master a New Skill

Finding an avenue of engaging in new and meaningful activities helps in boosting your neurological functionality. In addition to this, it counteracts the outcomes of diseases secondary to stress and tones down the risks of acquiring dementia. An important factor that should be incorporated to help with the normal functionality of the brain, is doing a task with a seriousness in purpose. In simple language, the task you are engaging in should be interesting enough to capture your attention for long spans of time. Examples of the tasks we are referring to are knitting and quilting, among others.

9. Try Mnemonic Devices

This refers to a form of memory tools that are designed to enable you to recall concepts, facts and also words. Their main use comes in when organizing information in a format that’s quite easy to remember. The major elements that are put in place when implementing them includes the use of:

Acronyms – forming a word out of the first letters of whatever you want to remember.

Visualizations – forming a visual representation of what you’re required not to forget. An example being visualizing a tooth in order to remember an appointment with the dentist.

Chunking – this is cleaving the information into much smaller bits.

Rhymes – using rhyming words to remember vital information.

10. Chewing Gum

As simple and cheesy as this might sound, chewing gum helps in retrieving of information. Studies have led us to believe that people perform better in memory tasks when chewing gum in comparison to when they are not. Simply, chewing gum helps in improving the concentration of most people and also keeps them more focused. This works mainly for long term purposes, whereas the people who don’t chew have an edge when it comes to short-term memory tests.

Conclusion

Memory is one of the most sought after treasures when it comes to the academic world and it is also important in life in general. From writing down, to visualizing, and even chewing gum, we have looked at some of the simple but effective ways of helping to make a fortress of memory in your minds, and hopefully, improve your remembrance skills.

December 08, 2016