Tricks to Improve Your Memory

You've lost your keys more times than you care to remember, and you're in a constant state of paranoia over whether you turned your coffeepot off. Best friend's birthday? You're in the dog house again. Get your memory organized with some simple tips. Here, some of the most common memory problems, with solutions from experts on how to remember better:

Problem: You tend to forget appointments, addresses, PINs, and passwords.
Solution: The only way to make essentially boring data part of your long-term memory is to store it properly so you can retrieve it later on. Attach some sort of meaning to it. For an important date, like your niece’s birthday, give it an emotional connection (eight days after the Fourth of July). For less important information, like a dentist’s appointment, don’t even try to remember.

Problem: You forgot why you walked into another room.
Solution: Visualize what you want or need before you start walking into a room, says Zaldy S. Tan, M.D. 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.

Problem: You can’t remember where you put your keys, wallet, or train pass.
Solution: This is typically an attention issue. You toss your keys down when you walk through the door while preoccupied with something else. A few hours later, you can’t remember where you put them. Pay attention when you’re putting things down, and tell yourself, silently or out loud, what you’re doing. Consistency is an even better strategy. “If you put your keys in the same dish every day, you’ll always, without fail, know where they are,” says Elizabeth Edgerly, Ph.D.

Problem: A word, a movie or book title, or a long-lost friend’s name is on the tip of your tongue, but you can’t come up with it.
Solution: First, cut yourself some slack — it happens to everyone. This is a universal problem, and it happens more as we age, Elizabeth Edgerly. Ph.D., says. It also becomes harder to recall basic information when you feel stressed or are holding too many thoughts in your head at once. Take a deep breath to clear your head. Then say aloud what you think the name of the book or movie might be: “It’s something like water” or “It begins with an S.” If you’re still stuck, then “substitute a word that will fit for the time being,” Edgerly says, “and chances are the actual word will surface later.”

Problem: You have a hard time remembering people’s names.
You’re not alone. “When I teach preventive memory classes to healthy adults, 90 to 95 percent of participants say they’re not good at recalling names,” says Edgerly. The problem may be storage (you weren’t paying attention when you met the person), retrieval (you can’t call up the name), or a combination of both.
Solution: Most people are visual learners, which explains why you rarely forget faces but often forget names. So when you meet someone new, take a good look at the person, repeat her name to yourself at least three times, then use it in conversation.

Problem: You can’t remember whether you’ve turned off the stove, the coffeepot, or the iron.
Solution: When you perform an automatic task, like switching off the stove, you’re using procedural memory. This type of long-term memory is used for actions like riding a bike, typing, or putting a key into a keyhole. Because the act is more mechanical than conscious, you’re not fully aware of the action while you’re performing it: Most of the time you probably do turn off the stove. But if you find yourself frequently guessing or sometimes truly forgetting, make an effort to be mindful of the critical moment when you flip the switch. Say out loud, “Oven is off.” A Post-it on the front door with a checklist of what needs to be on, off, open, or shut is another good remedy.