From the moment we open our eyes in the morning up to the time we fell asleep at night, we are depending on our good memory to accomplish various things. Allow me to share with you some ideas to prove my point.
In the morning, we know that having breakfast is essential to jumpstart our day. Our memory helps us remember the recipe for cooking a sumptuous meal or when preparing our cafe latte.
When it comes to planning ahead and arranging our schedule based on the activities we have for the day. We need to know the time and duration of our meetings, examinations, or presentations so we can make arrangements and avoid overlapping issues.
Yes, we can check our planners for that, but it’s still cool when the latter is not necessary because we have the details stored in our memory.
During social gatherings, our memory recalls the name of hundreds of people we meet, the place where we met them, and sometimes the important occasions in their lives. Come to think of it, it’s heartwarming when our friends really remember our birthday, right? Because they memorize it, not just from the social media notification.
Our memory helps us become efficient when preparing for examinations. Studying takes long hours but having a good memory can make it shorter. The reason is we can memorize information, formulas, and key phrases faster. Once we are done studying, we can proceed to do other chores that are equally important to us.
If you are always watching Korean tv-series and Japanese anime, I am pretty sure that it makes you want to learn their language. Having a good memory can help you with that. You can easily remember the common phrases used by characters in the series. Eventually, you are already speaking their language and watching TV series without needing subtitles.
Traveling to other countries is really a good experience. We get to meet people and have an idea about their culture. Do you know what makes it better? It’s the memories we had that will stay with us forever.
At night time, When we are lying in bed, we can share good and bad travel experiences with our loved ones until we fell asleep. We can all do these if we have a good memory.
If you have trouble remembering stuff. HEALTH TODAY magazine has shared the 10 things we can do to improve our memory.
Top 10 Ways to Improve our Memory
The suggestions here are basically easy to do and can reward us in the long run if we just stick to them.
1. Exercise Regularly
Studies show that aerobic fitness may reduce the loss of brain tissue during aging. There are exercises that you can do outdoors such as speed walking, jogging, cycling, or swimming.
However, if you are a stay-at-home kind of person, you can also do simple indoor exercises such as push-ups, and situps. If your home is spacious, you can also do jumping jacks.
2. Stick to a Healthy Diet
Avoid sugar and saturated fats. Eat lots of antioxidant-rich fruits and vegetables, such as spinach and beets. The magnesium in dark green, leafy vegetables appears to help maintain your memory.
3. Learn New Things
Mastering activities you’ve never done before, such as playing the piano or learning different languages or new skills such as cooking, stimulates neuron activity.
Aside from improving our memory, learning new things allows us to continuously grow mentally and physically. Before we know it, we are already outside of our comfort zone.
4. Get Enough Sleep
Too little sleep impairs concentration.
Aside from reduced memory function, if our body is sleep-deprived, we are also prone to errors and accidents. According to this article, the lack of sleep can result from mundane to catastrophic human errors.
Based on the recommendation from SleepFoundation.org, the hours of sleep per day with reference to age are as follows:
- Preschoolers (3 to 5 years old) is 10 to 13 hours
- School age (6 to 13 years old) is 9 to 11 hours
- Teenagers (14 to 17 years old) is 8 to 10 hours
- Young Adults (18 to 25 years old) and Adults (26 to 64 years old) is 7 to 9 hours
- Older Adults (65 years and above) is 7 to 8 hours
5. Devise Memory Strategies
Make notes or underline key passages to help you remember what you’ve read. Invent your own mnemonics for remembering things.
6. Socialize
Conversation, especially positive, meaningful interaction, helps maintain brain function.
Socializing with friends, and family members can also serve as a stress reliever because you get to share with them your aspirations, dreams, and also your fears.
Socializing with peers and colleagues in the corporate world can strengthen the relationship with the officemates. This is one of the reasons why small and big companies organize team building and summer outings yearly.
7. Get Organized
Designate a place for important items such as keys and checkbooks. Keep checklists for things such as daily medications or items to pack when you travel.
8. Turn Off the Box
Experts say too much TV watching weakens your brainpower.
I think this should include devices such as tablets and smartphones. According to a study, reading from paper is more effective than reading on the screen of smart devices. It also added that the person who reads on paper has a better understanding and performance on exams related to the topics read.
9. Jot Down New Information
Writing helps transfer items from short to long-term memory.
When taking an important examination, you can also write down on a huge piece of paper the key phrases, formulas, and facts related to the exam topic. Afterward, post it on your wall. This will help you memorize the information quickly since you see it often every day.
10. Solve Brainteasers
Crossword puzzles, card games, and board games such as Scrabble improve your memory.
This is for parents, aside from the brainteasers, you can improve your memory by teaching your kids when comes to solving Math problems and memorizing Science key topics. This can be a bonding moment for you and your kids. At the same time refresh yourself from the lessons you have learned during your school days.
*Top 10 ways in improving your memory is from HEALTH TODAY MAGAZINE dated AUGUST 2008
Do things that come naturally to you, then study when you are relaxed
Thanks Duncan for the additional inputs.