Memory Tricks To Make Your Life Easier

Get set to discover some of the memory tricks used by those people who seem to have memories like elephants

It's not that their brain is any more capable than yours. It is simply that they have learned some tricks and techniques that make it easy for them to recall whatever it is they need ... right when they need it!

Let's take a look at a few of the memory tricks that you can use to sharpen your recall of anything that is important to you so you won't need to walk around with a piece of string stuck to your finger!

Establish a Recall Routine.

If you are finding it hard to remember something, it is easier for you to recall it if you have a system for remembering.

For instance, if you are really bad with names and your job requires you to know many people’s names, you might want to associate their first or last name to something familiar or catchy to you.

The Flintstone from Marketing is Betty, TiVo Steve-o from HR, etc. Yes, it does sound silly but that is exactly the point. The sillier it is, the easier it is to remember.

Don't Use Lists

If you always have a list of things you need to remember under the refrigerator magnet, you can never hope for a sharper memory. Yes, you may have to endure shopping trips in which you forgot the milk or the cereal but in time, your brain will get used to the routine and eventually it will stick.

Sing It

Your mind is more responsive to tones and melodies than words alone. So sing, your grocery list or your meeting schedule (or whatever else you need to recall), to a well known tune or nursery rhyme. "Mary had a little lamb" can become "Remember bread, cheese and soap"

Words and Numbers

It can feel like a disaster when you are standing in line at the ATM and you suddenly realize you can't remember your pin. To make it easier to remember numbers one of the memory tricks some people use is to associate them with words or letters. For instance, you can assign 1 as the letter A, 2 as the letter B and so on.

Or another great technique is to create a little story that uses rhyming words for the numbers. For example if the pin was 2358 you could remember it by saying "Tatoo the bee skydived the gate". .... Tatoo (2) the bee (3) skydived (5) the gate (8).

Use Mnemonics

Mnemonics are useful to help you recall things in a memorable way. For example, you may have heard of the term SMART goals. This is a mnemonic for:

- all the elements the experts say are needed for good goal setting. The mnemonic makes it easy to recall each element.

Chunking

An easy way to remember a long list of numbers - for example a social security number- 1969020325911 - is to chunk the numbers down into something that is easier to remember

1969 year man landed on the moon
0203 day and month Jane was born
25     the age I was when I got married
911    it's an emergency!

In a few minutes each day ...

It will only take you a few minutes every day to exercise your brain and sharpen your memory by using these simple memory tricks and you will be amazed by how quickly your mind really sharpens up.

Never again will you hit the panic button because you can't recall a street direction, pin number or shopping list.

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