How to improve your memory
Haben Sie manchmal das Gefühl, ein Gedächnis wie ein Sieb zu haben? Lernen Sie, wie Sie sowohl mit Eselsbrücken als auch durch die richtige innere Einstellung Ihr Erinnerungsvermögen und Ihre Aufmerksamkeit ganz einfach verbessern können.
“I’ll never remember that. I have a memory like a sieve”. Does this sound like you? If so, then stop right now! Saying things like this sends your brain feelings of inferiority and fear and blocks your ability to remember. Positive mental feedback, on the other hand, builds up your chances of remembering.
Here are some tips for learning and remembering information, people and what you have to do:
Pay attention and decide
Pay attention to what you are learning and decide that you are going to remember it.
Relate to what you know
Does the information you need to remember remind you of some information you already know? Does the person, or the person’s name remind you of someone you have already met?
Say what you want to remember out loud
Storage seems to work better when we pronounce the names of the items we need to remember out loud.
Explain it to someone else
Once you think you have grasped the main idea, explain it to someone else in your own words.
Help yourself by making lists
Make notes. According to some memory specialists, we can only keep a maximum of seven items in our short-term memory. So if you have to remember more than seven, make sure you make a list.
Make use of triggers
Our memory makes use of various “triggers”, known by the impor- tant-sounding Greek name mnemonics. Using mnemonics is like using an Eselsbrücke. The trigers in mnemonics include images, colours, tastes, sounds and smells.
Imagine the following situation. Your boss is rushing out of the office while you are on the way in. Without giving you time to sit down, he shouts a list of things he needs this afternoon: the report about overtime, a new cable for his PC, an appointment with Jessica Cash for next week, a file with press reports and some new felt-tip pens.
Try the following: create a story with the things he mentioned. But imagine everything grossly exaggerated. For example, the report about overtime has a clock on the front (to represent overtime). It is very big and yellow (colour). It is tied together with a cable made out of liquorice (taste). This cable is connected to your desk diary, and a very tiny Jessica Cash is sitting inside eating the other end of the liquorice, looking at a huge file with press reports, laughing loudly (sound) and drawing all over them with a felt-tip pen.
Admittedly, the story is very strange, but nobody but you knows it and you are sure to remember it – perhaps for a long time after.