Tricks to Improve Your Memory

Being Distracted

Problem: You forgot why you walked into another room. You were probably distracted en route, or the item you wanted to remember wasn’t noteworthy enough to be registered completely in your brain.

Solution: "Visualize what you want or need before you start walking into a room," says Tan. He also recommends linking items you want to remember with something familiar. If you want to get your summer clothes out of the basement, before you set out, think of yourself on the beach or beside a pool in your swimsuit. This system makes the items more vivid and therefore more memorable. When you forget to visualize what you want and find yourself thinking, Why am I in this room? retrace your steps mentally and, if that doesn’t work, physically. “Ask yourself what you wanted before you left, whom you were with, or how you were feeling,” says Elizabeth Edgerly, Ph.D., chief program officer for the Alzheimer’s Association in Northern California and Northern Nevada.