Forgetting : How to Improve Your Memory Skills
It happens sometimes to remember a meeting just when you are already late for it or go to the supermarket and forget what you were supposed to buy. These are just a few reasons for people to wish for a very good memory and there is a saying an elephant never forgets.
But what if we can be just like the elephant. What if we can improve our memory skills and memorize all the important things we used to forget, wouldn’t that be a big victory? There are certain memory stimulating games and all sorts of techniques that should help someone improve their memory.

picture by Shutterscript
There are two different approaches to help your memory. Internal techniques that involve association, visualization and observation and external techniques that include written instructions, organizing, environmental factors or sound triggers.
Here are a few ways to improve memory, that helped me and you may benefit from.
- Keep an active brain. This is probably the best advice I can give you. Your brain is not a muscle so exercising inside your head is needed to keep it “growing” and to create new nerve connections.
How to do it. More complex ways require learning. A new language, skiing, roller-blading, dancing or playing a musical instrument are all great ways to create activity inside your brain. Just consider how many images or happenings you could associate that new French word you’ve learned. Easier tasks than learning, are puzzles and games. - Make associations. Creating a mental link between the things you already knew and new information is very important. Associating things is a very good memory booster. It’s like filing your documents on letters and you go to B to find Bill’s invoices. Let your imagination free when you associate things.
- Visualize and observe. When you want to remember something in particular you should create a mental picture of what you’re interested in. Be very attentive to details and take a benchmark.
How to do it. The most common example is forgetting where you’ve parked the car. When you get out look around and see if there are any signs near you, count the lanes to the entrance or see if you’re in front of a certain building. You will most likely remember the color or the architectural elements of that building. - Repeat things. Practice makes it perfect, some would say. One of the biggest concerns when talking in front of people is that you may forget your speech. It is true, but how can we make sure we won’t? The more times you hear, see or speak about something the easier you will remember it. Go in front of the mirror and tell the speech loud or focus about it in bed and do it silently.
- Meditation. I remember when I read The Silva ”Mind Control’ Method (printed book by José Silva) for the first time I was amazed. The guy was a city planner and he lost the drawings for a proposed shopping mall in the area. What he did?
He sat at his desk. In a moment his eyes closed and he became still and quiet. Anyone might have thought he was composing in the face of disaster.
A full ten minutes later he opened his eyes, rose slowly, and walked outside to his secretary. “I think I’ve found them,” he said calmly. “Let’s look at my expense account for last Thursday, when I was in Hartford. What restaurant did I have dinner in?”
He telephoned the restaurant. The drawings were there.
I guess it explains things very well. I always try to meditate 10 minutes a day when everything is peaceful in the office. I put both of my hands over the abdomen, I breathe deep and I try to concentrate on the calmness that surrounds me.
- Exercise. If you’re fighting a sedentary lifestyle and exercise daily not only your muscles will be happy. You will improve blood circulation throughout your body (brain included), be more alert and relaxed
- Eating and sleeping. If you’ve been a reader on SocialPacks you already know that we care a big deal about eating and sleeping. There are certain things you can eat to have more energy and a few tips to getting a good night’s sleep that will keep your brain healthier. Try to include fish in your meals, foods containing anti-oxidants, Vitamin E, Niacin, Vitamin B-6.
- Organize your life. I remember what Grandpa was saying that the way you make your bed is how you sleep. Later on I realized that he was right. Living a complicated life is not going to make it easy for your brain to remember things. If your office is filled with files and papers that no one ever try to put in order, don’t expect to find what you’re looking for. Same goes for your brain.
- Reduce stress. A cluttered life, eating problems, sleeping problems or a bad job could lead to living a very stressed life. When you’re stressed out you won’t be able to concentrate and makes remembering a very difficult process. Declutter your desk and the whole work environment, relax when you have time and play sports when you can. All these help to have a healthier brain.
I hope these are going to help you out and I am certain you guys have more tips and tricks to improve memory. Just leave your thoughts in the comments below.



Currently, I am studying in the field of abnormal psychology. When one thinks of mental health, as in mental illnesses such as depression and obsessive compulsive personality disorder, one does not often associate these as manifesting in childhood. The reality is, however, that mental illness is a lot more predominate in children than once thought. The growing research in this area is on one hand very illuminating and informative but on the other hand very dark and saddening. Perhaps the most dark and saddening realization in the past years is that children as young as five or six can be thinking of committing suicide. What is even worse is that some, actually have a plan to do so.

The SAFMEDS model of Remembering
Those people that are ambitious enough to have lots of goals, will agree with me that no matter how many you have over the course of your lifetime, they all go straight into one of the four distinct categories I’m going to mention below. Achieving a goal is not always easy, because sometimes it requires high levels of energy even for the smallest success.
Experiencing something and learning information does require the storing of this information into what we call the ‘permanent memory’. Sometimes this information is easily forgotten because it was never encoded strongly enough from the working memory into the permanent memory. Sometimes the information is overwritten by new information and finally, sometimes the encoding was faulty to begin with. This can be related to installing a new program onto your computer to find that the program doesn’t work. You might need to reinstall the program meaning you may need to relearn the information making sure the encoding progress works and is strong.