This article describes several techniques that can be used as possible aids to remembering things better, as well as ways of reducing the impact of forgetfulness on a person's life.
Some topics covered include ways of trying to remember phone numbers and appointments better, absent-mindedness, the problem of often losing door keys, remembering people's names, and some tips for remembering information during revision for exams.
There are several different techniques a person can use to try to remember things such as phone numbers. Some will work better for some people than others. It's possible that some people will find some helpful, while other ones hinder them by making things more convoluted than they would have been if they'd just tried to keep the numbers themselves in mind. Other people might find the very techniques that hinder those people helpful though - it depends on the individual. People ought to select the technique that works best for them, or try a few and abandon the ones that don't work or make things more confusing.
Here are a selection of techniques that can be chosen from or tried out:
When trying to memorise a phone number or some other sequence of numbers or letters, it can help if the digits are split up into groups that can be repeated back in the mind with a bit of rhythm. It's easier to remember shorter numbers, so a long number split up in the mind into a few groups of short ones that are put together in a rhythm is an aid to memory. So, for instance, instead of trying to remember a number like 01273549273 as one long number, it can help if the numbers are memorised in a rhythmical pattern, with little pauses in between each group, like, "01273 549-273".
If that was a phone number, another memory aid would be that the code and number both end in 3. Finding little quirks about the number like that can help it stay in the memory.
On the other hand, a person needs to remember what quirks it has, so as not to get it confused. For instance, someone might notice that a number like 01804 325408 seems easy to remember because the last three digits of the number are a reverse of the last three in the dialling code. That could make it easy to remember, unless they get confused, and mistakenly recall that what made it easy to remember was something like that the last three digits of the code and number were the same, which would make them dial the wrong number next time they tried to ring the person they wanted to speak to.
One thing that can work is thinking of the digits of a phone number as the letters that correspond to them in the alphabet, such that 1 would be A, since A's the first letter in the alphabet, B would be 2, 3 would be C, 4 would be D, 5 would be E, 6 would be F, 7 would be G, 8 would be H, 9 would be I, and 0 could be J.
So, for instance, the number 3175 would be 'cage'. The number 214 would be 'bad'. The number 217 would be 'bag'. The number 935 would be 'ice'. The number 2978514 would be 'bighead'. The number 017754 would be 'jagged'. The number 8978 would be 'high'. And so on.
Naturally, it would mean getting good at memorising which number corresponds to which letter - for instance that E's the fifth letter of the alphabet, I's the ninth, and so on. But it might not take long to remember that. And once remembered, all kinds of words can be made with phone numbers to help them stay in the memory. They don't have to be real words; they can be nonsense ones.
Also, some numbers can remain part number, but have words too. Or numbers can be more than one word, if it's too difficult to make them one sometimes.
For instance, 92148514 could be 'ibad head'. The number 4935297 could be 'dice big'. The number 73655273 could be 73feeb73.
With computer passwords, a string of letters can be split up in the mind into syllables in a similar way, maybe nonsense syllables. They'll be easier to remember than a big string of random letters. It's probably best if numbers stay numbers there to prevent confusion.
For instance, the password bwafhiltoqag35hoi92 could be remembered, not as a sequence of random letters, but as a string of nonsense syllables, which, once repeated in the mind enough to be planted there, are more likely to stick there. And remembering a string of funny words that make up a password will be easier if you get used to saying them in some kind of rhythm. So the password just mentioned could be remembered in the mind as "bwaf hil toqag 35 hoi 92", in rhythm.
It also helps if the shape of the letters or numbers together can be visualised in the mind.
Another technique that can be used with phone numbers, or passwords made up of letters, is that sentences can be made up, with the first letter of each word representing the digit of a phone number that the letter corresponds to in the alphabet, for instance a word that begins with E corresponding to a 5; or the initial letter of each word could signify a letter of a password.
So a sentence made up to make it easier to remember the number 98139152 could be, 'I had a coke in an empty bowl'. The number 0121314893 could be 'Jackie and Barbara ate carrots and drank hot ice-cream'.
Also, recognising significant dates in phone numbers can help. For example, some phone numbers must contain the sequence 1969, the year of the first moon landing; some must contain the sequence 1492 (the year Columbus discovered America) and so on. Family dates of birth or ages might be in them sometimes. It can be easier to remember numbers with something noteworthy about them than just a sequence of random numbers.
There might be mathematical quirks in some numbers that make them easier to remember. For instance, the number 7321 could be remembered by the thought that seven threes are 21. Or it could just be remembered because 321 is an easy sequence of numbers to remember.
Also, it helps if after hearing or reading a long number, several seconds are set aside just for repeating it in the mind and trying to fix it in the memory. Things like phone numbers can very quickly disappear from the mind if an effort isn't made to implant them in the memory. Someone only has to say something that distracts attention away from the number for a few seconds and it's gone, if it hasn't been fixed there by a few seconds of effort and repetition.
When the bank gives you a PIN number, it can help to remember it if you repeat it several times to yourself in a rhythmical way, to implant it in the mind.
And as with phone numbers, one thing that can be tried is thinking about whether there's any significance for you in them, for instance if any of the numbers are in the order of memorable dates or birthdays of people you know. For instance, the PIN number 7848 might be easy enough to just remember, but if anyone anticipates having difficulty, they can ask themselves if any of the sequences of numbers mean anything to them. Perhaps 78 might be the year a sister or daughter of theirs was born - 1978. And 48 might be the age of someone they know, or a date they can remember - it was the date the national health service was started in Britain, for instance.
One technique that can be tried as an aid to remembering things is making up little rhymes, since little lines that rhyme tend to stick in the mind, especially if they've got a good rhythm to them.
So, for instance, someone who wanted to remember various doctor's appointments could perhaps make up little rhymes, similar to these:
Doctor's appointment on 15th of June
Ten to three in the afternoon.
Doctor's appointment on 23rd September
Half past nine - I'll try and remember
Doctor's appointment on 3rd of May
Quarter past twelve on a Thursday
On 7th of March I must go to the doc
At ten to four by the time on the clock.
And so on. If a word's difficult to rhyme with something, it doesn't have to be an exact rhyme, and sometimes the sentence can be put in a different order so the last word's one that rhymes with more things.
Naturally, writing things down and leaving notes about them in places where they'll definitely be noticed is better.
Little rhymes can help with remembering lots of different things; for instance, if it's difficult to remember how to spell a word, making up a little rhyme can be a memory aid; or some rhymes are ready-made. For instance, in most words, where an I and an E appear next to each other, the I comes first. The exception is where the previous letter is a C. So there's a rhyme people are taught in schools, "I before E, except after C".
Naturally, the shorter the rhyme is, the easier it'll often be to remember.
Also, words that have a few letters in common with other words that are connected to them in some way can be linked in the mind: For instance, there are two words that sound the same with very different meanings, stationery and stationary. Stationery means paper and other things to do with writing. The way that's spelled can be remembered, because that and the word 'paper' both have the letters 'er' in them. When the word's spelled the other way - stationary - it refers to something that's at a standstill; people suggest remembering that by thinking it's the kind of word that might be used to talk about a car that's stopped at traffic lights - both the word 'car' and the word 'stationary' have 'ar' in them.
Or there are two words, compliment - which means to say something nice about someone, and complement - which means to go with well in some way. (At least, they're spelled differently in British English, but maybe not in American English.) Anyone having difficulty remembering which is which could think of a word that's connected to each word, that begins with the letter that's different in each of them, or that has another significant letter in common with one of them. A connection could sometimes just be made between one of them and another word, since if one's remembered, it'll be clear that the other one's the one that's spelled the other way.
So, for instance, the I in compliment can be remembered as the letter belonging to the word about being nice, because it's the first letter of the word insult, which is the opposite of a compliment. Or it can be remembered because the word 'nice' has got an I in it, so it's similar in a way to the word 'compliment' when it's spelled with an I.
Once that's remembered, it can easily be remembered that the E goes in the word that means to go well with, especially since they both have significant E's in them.
Words that are connected in some way with a word that needs to be remembered can help in other ways too. For instance, in a house that has radiators that turn different ways to heat up, if markings on them don't make it obvious which way they need to be turned for some reason, then the fact that one is turned towards a person to heat up could be remembered because the word 'towards' rhymes to some extent with the word 'warm'. In another room where the radiator knob's turned away to warm the place up, it can be remembered because the word 'away' has an emphasis on the W, just as the word 'warm' does. "Away warm".
Then again, the more a person becomes used to turning the knobs in the way they go, the more they'll just get into the habit of automatically turning them in the way they want them to go, without the use of memory aids.
Sometimes, you might assume you can't remember something, but really it's still there all stored all safely in the memory; it's just that the memory needs to be jogged in some way to release it. For instance, if a person hears a song from their schooldays on the radio, all kinds of memories from their teenage years might come flooding to mind that they'd have struggled to recall if someone had asked what they remembered about their teenage years just days earlier.
Knowing about the background of something, or having some context to put it in to make it easier to understand, can help bring to mind the details of it, because it can prevent it from being consigned to the realms of the obscure in the mind: For instance, foreign language grammar will be much easier to remember if rather than just trying to remember a sequence of variations on unfamiliar words, - for instance what letters to put on the end of various verbs to signify that a verb is plural or third person and so on, - other words are learned too at the same time, so that people can rehearse whole sentences, and see how the words with different endings fit into the sentences, and practise using them in them. If someone becomes familiar with the sound it makes when they say "We are doing" such-and-such a thing, for instance, saying it will come more naturally than if they just learned a set of grammar rules, and then had to recall which of those word endings they had to use with words that are used with the plural "we" when they came to learn conversations.
Or if someone learns when the first windmill was invented, and wants to remember it, for example, it'll be easier to recall the date if they think when they learn it about what it must have been like to live in those times, and learn a little of what was going on in the world at the same time. If they have a picture of those things in their minds, the picture will come back to them when they ask themselves later when the first windmill was invented, and jog their memory for the date.
Other things can be memory aids too. For instance, a good way of working out how many days are in each month is to use a technique where you count on the knuckles of your hand - the ones that are actually on the hand, rather than the ones on the fingers, - and not just the knuckles, but the bits that are indented in between. The first knuckle on the hand - not counting the ones on the thumb, but starting next to it, - represents the first month of the year; January has 31 days; all the knuckles represent months with 31 days in them. After the knuckle, you come to a bit of the hand that's indented compared to the knuckle; all those bits represent months with less than 31 days. So since knuckles and the bits that don't stick up alternate, you can tell that January, March, May and July all have 31 days, and February, April and June all have fewer, being represented by the bits that don't stick up.
At July, you get to the little finger and the end of the hand, and start coming back again. But you count the knuckle on the little finger twice, since both July and August have 31 days. Then September's represented by a bit that's indented compared to the knuckle, so you can tell it's only got 30 days. Then October's represented by a knuckle, and so on.
That means that if you forget how many days there are in a certain month, as long as you remember to try that technique, you can use it to refresh your memory of it.
It might be possible to invent other memory aids using things on the body, or somewhere close by in your surroundings, and sometimes, for things of more immediate concern; for instance, some people might find it helps them to remember to lock their front and back doors at night if they have something on a table or desk they sit near for much of the day to remind them, such as little buttons or something that are arranged and stuck on paper in the shape of a key, or a little sketch of a key, - something unusual enough that it'll get noticed, and they might ask themselves what it's therefore whenever they notice it, and then their brain will remind them. When the shape becomes so familiar they don't really notice it anymore, the colour could be changed, or another memory aid could be put in its place, so it'll be noticed and bring to mind the reason it's there again.
Or an alarm could be set on a watch or something to go off at a certain time - either a time you have to get ready to go somewhere, or a time you decide to do something at, like locking the doors to the outside at night. When the alarm goes off, it'll jog the memory.
If it goes off while you're busy doing something, and you want to finish it first, it might be helpful to re-set it for five minutes later, in case you forget it went off. That's especially the case if it's a kitchen timer, and you're timing something cooking - don't imagine you'll be bound to remember you decided to leave something in the oven for a few extra minutes, thinking it could do with being cooked for just a bit longer, because you might not, till you smell burning.
Don't rely on your memory more than you have to; for instance, if you put something in the oven, set a loud timer immediately for when it'll be finished; don't just make a mental note of what time you want to get it out again and then go off and do something else, especially something interesting, because if you get absorbed in it, you might forget all about the food in the oven.
It's best not to rely on the memory more than necessary, since things can easily be forgotten. Whenever you can help the memory in some easy way, it's best to.
For instance, if you buy a new soap for the bathroom, and soon after you start using it, you find your skin's getting dried out, and bits get inflamed and painful, and you're wondering if it's the soap doing it, but you're not sure, so you don't want to throw the new soap away, but you put another soap you're used to using there, and decide to use that rather than the new one to see if your hands get better, it's best to take the other one away and put it somewhere else out of sight, since otherwise, it might be easy to forget you've decided not to use it for a while, and put some on your hands before you remember you decided not to, since putting soap on the hands can be an automatic thing people do without really thinking, especially since their minds can be partially on other things at the time, such as what they're going to do when they get out of the bathroom. Or when the replacement soap's run out, you might have forgotten it was a replacement soap for one that gave you skin irritation, and start using that one again.
It's similar with a variety of other things.
Memories can be stronger if they're associated with feelings. So, for instance, if someone hasn't ever cleaned their teeth in the morning but only at night, but they want to remember every day to clean their teeth in the morning as well in future, they could try the expedient of leaving notes or sketches of toothbrushes where they'll see them, for one thing; but another thing they could try is spending a minute or so every so often during the first several days they're cleaning their teeth in the morning imagining finishing breakfast, tasting and enjoying the last bit of food or what they're drinking as they normally would, and then moving their tongue around their mouth and feeling some bits of plaque, which makes them feel motivated to clean it off. Then they can imagine going to the bathroom and cleaning their teeth, and feeling a sense of satisfaction and pleasure afterwards at the feel of nice clean teeth. The more vividly they can imagine feeling those things, the better.
Also, when they really do clean their teeth in the morning the first few times, they can make their feelings stronger if they really do take several seconds to enjoy the sensation of feeling smooth clean teeth with their tongue, and the fresh feeling in their mouth, and the nice look of them.
The idea is that after a little while, if they skip cleaning their teeth in the morning, they'll miss the nice feeling of freshness in the mouth and the feel of freshly-cleaned smooth teeth, and that'll jog the memory that they intended to clean them, so if they've got time, they'll be more likely to go back and do it.
You might find that kind of thing can work with all kinds of new habits you'd like to develop and other things.
(It's recommended that people clean their teeth twice a day, but cleaning them lots of times a day would start to wear them away, so if fantasising about cleaning them and enjoying the sensation afterwards tempted a person to clean them much more often, they would do well to resist the temptation.)
If you keep forgetting whether you've just done something or not, such as locking a door, which you might sometimes do and then have to go back a minute later and see if you did it, because you can't remember if you did or not, it can help if whenever you do it in future, you say firmly to yourself as you're doing it a phrase like, "I'm locking the door now", or whatever it is you're doing; it can help implant the fact that you're doing it in your memory.
The reason that can work is that it's easier to forget you've done things if you've only got half your mind on doing them while you're doing them, which you might have a lot of the time if they don't require concentration; but saying what you're doing decisively to yourself will ensure that you've got your full mind on it for a couple of seconds, so it'll be less forgettable.
Pausing for long enough to say to yourself that you're doing something will inevitably slow you down a bit, so it might be a bit of a pain; but the extra time will likely help the memory of what you're doing become more firmly implanted in your mind.
But if you're still worried you'll forget something important, there are other things that can be tried: One is keeping objects that can be memory aids wherever possible. For instance, if you're worried about forgetting to take pills, there are tablet holders with separate sections for every day of the week that people can buy. People can fill them up at the beginning of the week, and then if they forget one day whether they've taken their tablet for the day or not, they can simply look to see if that day's section is empty or still full.
It can also be easier to remember to do things such as taking medication every day if you decide on a specific time to take it, and take it at that time every day, for instance with breakfast, if it's OK to take what you're taking with food, so it becomes a routine, where whenever you do one specific thing that you're in the habit of always doing, like having breakfast, you'll perhaps automatically think to do the other, especially if you leave the medication in a place where you'll always see it as a reminder, or leave it in a place with something you always take out to use to prepare breakfast, so it'll jog your memory when you see it.
If you keep forgetting where you put your keys, you could try having a specific place where you always put them, or a particular pocket you keep them in, and do your best to always remember to keep them there. Or if you put them down when you're out and then forget them, perhaps it would be best to never do that, but always keep them in a bag around your waist or on a chain around your neck, or always go out wearing something with pockets you can keep them in.
Or when you put them down, you could spend a few seconds just thinking about where you put them, before you do anything else. That way it's more likely to stick in your memory. The real cause of you putting them down and then forgetting where you left them might be that you put them down not really paying full attention to where you put them, because your mind's on other things at the time. So taking a few seconds every time you put them down to think about where you've put them might help to form a memory of where you're putting them in your mind, so it'll be easier to remember afterwards.
Or you could try buying something like one of those key rings that beep from a distance when you make a noise, and attach your keys to it, to help you locate them by sound, if you're putting them in a quiet place so it won't always be going off.
As with other things, when parking your car, spending a few seconds taking mental notes of exactly where it is might help you not to forget where you put it. Increasing your concentration on the location by saying to yourself, 'I'm parking the car ...' wherever you're putting it, might help even more.
It might help further if you form a picture in your mind of the car being in that particular place, spending a few seconds imagining it in its surroundings, for instance where it is in relation to the car park exit or a particular wall and so on.
If you sometimes go into another room or upstairs and so on and then forget what you went there for, it can happen because between the time when you thought of doing it and the time when you did, your mind quickly moved onto other things, so you're distracted from the idea you had that made you go there. It can help to tell yourself why you're going to go there when you think of going there if you think you might forget, and even briefly picture yourself there doing the thing you want to go there to do before you go. Remembering to think about that might be a problem, but perhaps the more you get into the habit of doing it, the more likely you are to start remembering to do it more.
Another strategy you could try if you go somewhere in the house and then forget why you went there is to go back to where you had the idea to do what you went there to do, either physically or in your mind, and think about what you were doing when you had the idea to go and do whatever it is you've just forgotten you were intending to do, to see if it jogs your memory.
You could also look around the room you've just gone into, to see if you can spot something that reminds you of what you went in there to do.
If you need to recall the details of something you said or did or saw, but you're finding it hard, for instance if you can't remember whether you discussed certain things with someone on the phone that you meant to discuss, it can help to try to memorise as many details you can of what was going on at the time, trying to think of what happened in chronological order. If you start to recall some of the details, it might jog your memory for others.
Similarly, if you lose something, instead of hunting around the house in a panic, it can help if you sit down and try to relax, and then try and remember the last time you had it, and as many details of what you did around that time as you can. You might remember what you did with it then, or maybe you'll think of something connected with it that'll bring back the memory, for instance if you remember putting it by the phone at one point, and that brings back the memory that you meant to phone a relative of yours to talk about an upcoming birthday, and the thought of that makes you think of birthday cake, and that makes you think of cake tins, and that reminds you that you put the thing you've lost in a tin in a cupboard.
That would be a lucky chain of memories. But the memory might come back without you needing to remember so many other things.
And the technique can work in other situations too. For instance, even during an exam, apparently it's been found that people can sometimes recall things they've learned if they think first of where they read them. Perhaps something about what happened at the time sometimes jogs their memory, for instance if they think back and remember some funny things a teacher said while they were learning some of the lessons where they were taught some of the things they need for the exam, and it makes it easier to recall some of those things, because thoughts of the amusing things remind them of other things the teacher said.
The more things you can do to reduce the amount you have to rely on memory the better.
For instance, if you remember you need to do a little thing, and you can do it then and there safely and without too much effort, it's often better to do it right then and there rather than to wait, since otherwise, it could easily be forgotten till it's inconvenient to do.
And it's best to write most things that need to be remembered down, (except things that are going to happen imminently, naturally, such as what time food has to be taken out of the oven, where other techniques are of course better). Whether true or not, even Einstein is said to have said, Never commit to memory anything you can write down.
And it's best to put things back where they were when you've finished with them, in case you leave them somewhere else, just assuming you'll remember to put them back later when you can be bothered, and then you completely forget, and wonder where on earth they are the next time you want them, after you've forgotten you left them where you did.
Some people hide precious things in places they think are great hiding places, and which probably are. ... The only problem is, they forget where they hid them. Or something worse happens, such as if a person doesn't normally use their oven, so they think it would be a great place to store their money, because surely a burglar would never look there; but one day they have guests, put some food in quickly, and turn it on.
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A man thought of what seemed to him to be a great hiding place for his money. He hid it in an old canister in a cellar. He kept it for years, thinking that one day he'd spend it on something really useful. At first he would sometimes go to check on it, and count it up with pleasure. But after a while, he stopped, and as the years went by, he forgot about it. One day, he decided to have a clear-out, and took a load of old cans and things from the cellar to the dump. ... After he came back, he remembered that his money had been in one of them! It was too late to get it back. |
So what seems to be an unusual hiding place for money, or some other unusual thing that seems like a good idea at the time, such as an unusual computer password, or anything like that, might turn out to be not such a good idea after all; so it's worth bearing in mind that the more complicated or unusual an idea is, the more forgettable it might be. That doesn't mean it should never be used, but extra steps should be taken to either try to make sure it's memorable, or perhaps by making some kind of encoded note of it somewhere.
If you have to remember a long list of things, putting them into some kind of order in your mind can help you recall them.
For instance, if you have to memorise and then recall the names of all the countries in the world, perhaps for a test, it could help to familiarise yourself with where they all are on a globe, and then picture a globe in your mind, both when you're trying to memorise them in the first place, and then when you're trying to recall them later so it jogs your memory for them. You could decide on some kind of order to try to remember them in, and then try to memorise them bit by bit, for instance by starting off by thinking of the most northerly countries, then imagining going south, and then so on around the world. As you think of each little part of the world, the countries in each part might come to mind in turn, so it'll be easier to remember them than if you were just trying to think of them in a long list.
Or you could try memorising them all in alphabetical order, also memorising how many there are beginning with each letter, so when you try to recall them, you can try to bring to mind the ones beginning with each letter in turn, and you'll have an idea of how many beginning with each letter you need to recall, so it'll help give you an idea of whether there are more of them to bring to mind as you go through them. Bringing them to mind systematically in order will likely be easier than trying to pluck their names randomly out of thin air.
For example, if there turn out to be seven beginning with S, if you manage to remember that there are, you'll know that when you try to bring all the countries to mind, when you get to S, you'll need to go on trying till you remember seven, whereas if you don't know that, you might remember two, and then when no more immediately come to mind, think that perhaps that's all there are, and move on to the next letter, and miss them.
Or you could combine thinking of them in alphabetical order with thinking of them in geographical groups. For instance, it might be easier to remember all the countries beginning with S if you remember all the African ones in a little group - Somalia, Sudan, South Africa ... and so on, and do the same with countries in the rest of the world. For instance, you might then go on to think of Western Europe, with Switzerland, Sweden, Spain, ... and so on, mentally moving around the world from region to region quickly time after time as you go through the alphabet. That way, some countries will be associated with others, so thinking of one will likely jog the memory for the rest.
Another technique is making nonsense words out of the first letters of things on a list if there are enough ones beginning with vowels. For instance, someone who wanted to remember a chronological list of all the books in the Bible, for some reason, could read a list of them that's already been put together, and work out what nonsense words the books' initial letters would spell, breaking them up into words of one, two or three syllables, so they could remember them more easily.
For instance, the initial letters of the first five books of the Bible, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, spell gelnd.
And instead of just remembering what the words are, you could try thinking about what shapes the words would make, since bringing the shapes to mind might make it easier to remember the letters than just remembering nonsense words.
If you're going to the shops with a shopping list in your mind, apart from the fact that it's best to write it down rather than trying to remember it, if you have to for some reason, it can be easier to put things into categories in your mind, so instead of having to remember a whole load of random items, you can think of each category at a time, so you only have to remember the items in the particular category you're thinking about at any one time; and also, remembering a short list of names of categories will mean you don't have to try to keep in mind a whole long list of items at once, but thinking of each category name in turn might jog your memory for the items in each one as you go along.
There are further memory aids you can try when you've done that too, like memorising and repeating to yourself how many items you want from each category. For instance, if you want to buy cheese, chicken, pork pies, milk, butter and chocolate, you could calculate how many items there are in each category, and memorise that, perhaps making some kind of rhyme or pattern out of the words, such as, "Dairy 3; meaty 2; chocolate 1."
Then if you end up buying fewer items than the number you know you want to buy for any category, you'll know there are more you have to think of. It'll at least likely be better than if you were to just count how many things you needed altogether, and then, for example, realise you were meant to buy fifteen items, and you were one short, but you couldn't remember what kind of thing it was at all.
Or you could group the things that begin with the same letter together, for instance, cheese, chicken and chocolate. And then perhaps you could make a nonsense word or acronym out of the first letters of the rest.
Another way of remembering shopping lists, or anything else, is to think up funny images that contain the things on them. For instance, before you go out shopping, you could imagine yourself walking home with a big block of cheese on your head, a pork pie on a chain around your neck, sloshing through puddles of milk, slipping on a layer of butter that's covering the ground, shoving chocolate in your mouth for comfort, and noticing a chicken's running after you. If you run such an image through your mind for several seconds to get it fixed in your mind, imagining the scene in as much vivid detail as you can, you might remember it for a while afterwards.
The more bizarre you imagine the images you make up to be, and the more exaggerated, the more likely they are to stick in your mind and jog your memory. For instance, if you know you want to buy a chocolate bar, you could imagine a giant chocolate bar hanging in the sky above you, keeping pace with you as you walk or something; or if you want to remember to buy a can of sardines, you could perhaps imagine a can of sardines that's partly in the shape of a fish, swimming in the sea.
The images don't have to be strange and unlikely; they can be effective if they're of things that really could happen; but they might stick in the mind more if there's something a bit dramatic about them.
Likewise with sentences - if you're trying to remember a list of things by making a sentence where the first letter of each word is the first letter of something on the list, an interesting sentence might well stick in the mind more than a mundane one.
For instance, if you want to buy chocolate, cheese, chips, sardines and raisins, you could think up a nonsense sentence, like, "I want chilly chops and choosy sarcasm in the rain".
Or the sentence could be about the actual things you do want, like, "Chocolate, cheese and chips go well together, topped with sardines and raisins."
The only thing is that if the sentence sounds too outlandish to you, especially if the words in it aren't connected to each other in some way, the ideas in it could seem so unfamiliar that you might forget some of it. It's probably best to do a bit of experimentation to work out what works best for you individually.
If you need to learn and remember a numbered list of items or other things, or items you could put in a numbered list yourself to help you remember them, such as a series of a dozen instructions that need to be carried out in a particular order to complete a task, you could associate each instruction with what number it is on the list in some way, to help you remember it and whereabouts it is on the list, for instance by making up a little sentence or phrase to go with each numbered item, which contains the number itself, and one or two of the most important words in the instruction, if that's somehow easier than calling each instruction instantly to mind itself.
For instance, if following a recipe, and the fourth instruction is to put a tablespoon of milk in it, you could think up the sentence, "I visited four shops to buy a single tablespoon of milk." That might jog your memory for it.
Naturally, the sentence would have to be made up in such a way that the number wasn't confused with something in the instruction itself, so you might, for instance, wrongly recall that you were meant to put four tablespoons of milk in the recipe.
Or you could think up interesting images or memorable words that you can associate with each number in some way, and then connect them somehow with the words you're using to memorise each instruction.
For instance, you can think up words that rhyme with the numbers from one to twelve, such as bun, shoe, tree, door, hive, sticks, heaven and so on, and then think of images that connect each instruction with each number. For instance, if the first instruction of something you want to do has to do with unscrewing something, you can think up an image to jog your memory, that has to do with the word 'bun', if you're using the word to remember the number one, and that also has something to do with unscrewing in some way, such as the image of finding a screw driver in a burger bun in a fast food restaurant instead of a burger, and being surprised.
Or instead of rhyming words, you could think of images that look like the written numbers, and try to think up connections between them and whatever instructions you're trying to remember. So, for instance, if you decide to imagine the figure one as being like a candle, you could think up an image to try to remember of you trying to burn the screws off a thing with a lighted candle before deciding to get them out the proper way.
You could also try to remember appointments using such techniques if you wanted to. For instance, if you had a doctor's appointment at nine o'clock, if you'd decided to rhyme the word pine with nine, you could imagine a doctor sitting up in the branches of a pine tree. Then if you had to be at the garage to have your car serviced at two o'clock in the afternoon, you could maybe imagine driving along in your car towards the garage with a shoe on the roof, if you'd decided to rhyme the word two with shoe.
It doesn't just work with numbers; for instance, you could think up substitute words for the days of the week that you could use to create images. For example, you could substitute the word money for Monday, chewing for Tuesday, windy for Wednesday, and so on. Then you could combine the number substitutes with the substitute words for the days of the week, and try and construct a mental diary of your appointments for the whole week.
For instance, if you have to go to the doctor at ten o'clock on Monday, you might have substituted the word money for Monday, and the word hen for ten, so you could think of the phrase doctor-money-hen in your mind, and perhaps form an image of a doctor sitting with a pile of money in front of him and a hen perched on top of it.
Then if you have an appointment with the hairdresser at three in the afternoon on Tuesday, you might have substituted the word tree for three, and the word chewing for Tuesday, so you could maybe imagine a hairdresser standing by a tree, chewing the branches, and remember the time of the appointment that way.
Naturally, it might be a whole lot simpler to just remember the times and days, or just write them down.
Images can be used as memory aids in all kinds of situations. For instance, if you're meeting someone important, and you want to remember to raise several points with them, and you're hoping to remember them all without having to resort to looking at notes you've written, maybe because you're worried that might make you look incompetent in front of them, you could try thinking of images or words that you can link together, that have something to do with the points you want to make.
For instance, if you were complaining about faults or giving a speech about several items of electrical equipment, and you first wanted to mention radios, then televisions, then fridges, then electrical can openers, then cookers, and then hairdryers, you could perhaps first think of an image of a radio, and then link it to the television topic by imagining a group of people in the first decades of the 20th century excitedly sitting around, discussing how radio had just been invented, but how they thought they could do even better by inventing a television.
Then you could link the idea of a television to the fridge topic by imagining a group of people sitting in front of a television, discussing how they'd enjoy watching it more if they could get cool drinks out of the fridge.
Then you could perhaps link the image of a fridge to the image of a can opener by imagining those people deciding it would be nice to open a tin of baked beans too.
Then you could remember the cooker by imagining them going into the kitchen and cooking the beans.
And then you could link the idea of beans to the idea of a hairdryer by forming an image of someone sitting eating beans and having a drink of water by them, when a mischievous person picks up the water and flings it over their head, so they have to go and dry their hair.
If you run those linked images in order through your mind several times when you dream them up, they'll likely stick in the memory better, so you can run through the images quickly in your mind when you need to remember each topic you want to talk about.
Or if you have to remember more abstract things to talk about, you could think of substitute words that are similar, that are easier to remember and to invent images as memory aids with than the abstract ones. For instance, if you have to remember to talk about someone whose name's Robert, you could think of it shortened to Bob, and then imagine him bobbing up and down in the sea where he's slightly out of his depth, as he gets hit by little waves.
Then if you have to talk about an insurance claim, you could imagine you notice he's holding a bag of money above his head.
Then if you have to talk about your child's school grades, you could imagine them sitting in front of a mock exam paper at school, distracted by looking at a photo you took of Bob holding the money bag in the sea, instead of reading the exam paper.
You could even draw pictures of the images you want to remember if you think that'll help. They don't have to be detailed pictures, if you think you'll remember which sketchy outline of something represents what, for instance a sketch of a stethoscope representing a doctor's office.
There are several variations on that kind of thing you could think up.
One thing doesn't necessarily have to be linked to the next; if you don't have to remember things in a specific order, just remembering images, or substitute words for any abstract words, can make them easier to remember; for instance, if you have to remember some technical terms, you might be able to remember them more easily if you think of words that sound like them, or even like just one or two syllables of them, that don't necessarily have to have anything to do with them, but which will enable you to associate them with dramatic images, or just words that are likely to stick in the mind more. And if a word you need to remember is long, you could think of two or more words as a substitute for it, not necessarily just one, for instance, substituting the words oil factory for the word olfactory, (which has to do with the sense of smell). It might be even easier to remember if you imagine smelling oil when you think of it.
Another way of trying to remember things is imagining an object that represents each one, and then imagining walking from room to room in a house, coming across them one by one as you go into each one. A person could, for instance, try to memorise each topic that way if they have to talk about several of them in a speech to colleagues. You could either imagine that each object is in a specific place in your house, or else that it's in a particular area of another familiar place where you like to go. Then you can imagine yourself walking through that place, from room to room or from one part to another, always in the same order, spotting the objects as you go.
And then if you're using the technique to memorise topics for speeches, for example, then with every new speech you do, you might have to think up new objects that are connected with the new topics you have to talk about so you can remember they represent them, but not everything you think up will have to be new, because you can imagine them being in the same house or area the others were in before, with you walking through each room or place in the same order as you did before, finding them.
When you first start trying the technique, you might have to think of yourself going through the place in the order you've chosen to go through it in again and again till you have a very clear memory of imagining going through it in that order; but after you've done that, you can imagine going through it routinely whenever you give a speech or do a similar task, just having different objects in each place, representing topics or other things you want to call to mind.
Or if it doesn't matter which order you mention topics or do other things in, it won't matter if you haven't made the effort to memorise a clear picture of what order you'd walk around the parts of the place you've chosen to imagine objects in, as long as you know you can remember to imagine going into every part of it that you want to.
If you want a variation on the technique, then instead of objects being in those places, you could imagine something in them being different, for instance being made of something you'd like to talk about, or whatever it is you want to use the memory aid to do.
So, for instance, if the first thing you'd like to talk about or do something else with is a newspaper, for some reason, you could imagine your front porch being plastered all over with newspaper. Then if the second thing you'd like to bring to mind is drinking chocolate, you could imagine going into your hallway and discovering drinking chocolate spilled all over the floor. Then if the third thing you'd like to call to mind is music, you could imagine opening your kitchen door, and unexpectedly hearing music coming from somewhere. And so on.
If you need to remember lots of things, you could imagine several objects or activities in each room, for instance in the kitchen, one could be on the table, one on or in or near the fridge, one on or in the cooker, and so on.
You could even associate several items with the same location, so, for instance, if you want to talk about sponges, chalk, laptop computers and drawing pins, you could imagine them all in the fridge.
Another way of remembering a whole set of images of objects that represent the things you're actually hoping to remember, so as to try to bring them to mind more easily, is if instead of imagining and then trying to memorise a sequence of events, such as walking into a series of different rooms in your house and finding different objects there, you think of objects all piled on top of each other, the bottom thing really big, the one on top of it a bit smaller, the third one up a bit smaller than that, and so on. So later if you remember the thing on the bottom, chances are the other things will come to mind too.
You might be able to think about that by imagining the actual things you're trying to remember there, rather than things that substitute for them, if, for example, you're trying to remember a small shopping list. You could, for example, imagine a massive can of sardines on the floor, on top of which is a massive bar of chocolate, just a bit smaller than the can of sardines, and on top of that is a big pack of toilet rolls, just a bit smaller than the chocolate bar, and on top of that is a bag of frozen peas, and so on, till there's perhaps a tiny loaf of bread on the top.
If you've got to remember several lists of things, you could imagine the items in each separate list being in separate sets of locations, for instance one set of items being around your house, and the items in another set each being in a different house in your street, or in different places you often visit or something.
What might make them easier to remember, wherever possible, is if you imagine the lists of things being associated with the locations that are best suited to them, for instance a shopping list being associated with locations in your house, a list of tasks to remember at work being associated with locations around your workplace, and so on.
You could also use other things as locations, such as your own body; for instance, if one topic you need to remember is finger painting, you can imagine your own fingers painting. If the next topic you need to remember is soap, you could imagine washing your hands with soap. And so on around the body, with you rehearsing imagining doing each thing in turn several times before you need to use the technique as a memory aid for real.
Alternatively, you could just write notes to remind yourself of what topics you'd like to talk about, or the details of whatever else it is you're having to do, and take them with you, so you don't forget any.
If you're trying to remember particular points you'll likely need to write down during an exam, or some such thing as that, it can sometimes help to imagine them in a picture, in different positions, such as with arrows pointing out from the centre to each one, rather than just trying to remember the points in a long list.
Or you could imagine particular categories of things being in particular places. For instance if they're words, you could imagine different groups of them being in separate columns on a page. For example, if a child's learning spellings at school for a test, and one thing they're going to need to remember for it is whether various words with an S sound at the beginning really do have an S at the beginning, or whether they have a C, like the words ceiling, cite and century, they could imagine all the words beginning with S on the left-hand side of the page, and all the words that begin with C on the right-hand side of it, and try to memorise a picture in their mind of a page like that, which might make them easier to remember.
Thinking of images you can associate things with can make it easier to remember ideas you might think up while you're drifting off to sleep, or in another situation where it would be awkward to write them down just then.
For instance, if you remember you need to hand over someone's pen to them after you accidentally walked off with it after you borrowed it, you might have soon forgotten the thought normally, but if you remember some kind of vivid image involving pens, such as a pen jumping up and down on your face, insisting you hand it back to its owner, the image might stick in your memory longer than the mere thought of how you need to hand it back, so you might be more likely to remember to give the pen back to its owner later or the next day.
Or you could try to develop the habit of thinking of an object that's doing something in a certain location in your house, or in another location of your choosing, that can be associated in some way with each new thought you have about something you want to do, when it's inconvenient to write it down. If you have several thoughts about things you're going to want to do, You could associate them all in some wacky way with different objects, and imagine each one being in a different place. For instance, if you decide before you go to sleep one night that you want to remember to write a letter, you could imagine pens jumping up and down in your porch outside your front door, if you have one, keeping your mind on the image for several seconds to implant it in your memory. Then if you remember you need to talk to your child's teacher about their grades at some point, and don't want to forget, you could imagine your hallway being littered with school reports or something.
Then the next day, if you actually manage to remember you had some ideas the night before when you were dropping off to sleep, if you think of the locations in your house, it's possible that doing that could cue you to remember the weird images you imagined being in them the night before, which were meant to represent the ideas about things to do that you needed to remember.
It could be that you'll later think of the images but not be able to think of the things they're supposed to represent, which will naturally defeat the object of thinking of images in the first place. But remembering the images might give you clues to what you were hoping to remember by thinking them up. For instance, if you remember you thought up an image of pens jumping up and down, you could think, "Pens! Why did I have to remember pens?" And then you might remember it was because you want to write a letter.
Naturally, when possible, it's always best to write a to-do list, since then you won't have to rely on trying to remember things.
If something happens that you know you'll need to remember, but you're in the habit of forgetting such things, such as if someone phones a family member of yours while they're out, and you want to remember to tell them the person phoned when they get back, but you know you tend to forget to do such things, if you're not able to write down a message, for some reason, you could try making the task of remembering the message easier by inventing a vivid image that might come to your mind more easily than just a message, because of its bizarreness, that connects an action the family member will take before you'll be able to get to tell them what you have to remember to tell them with what you want to tell them in some way, such as the family member holding a phone with a truly massive wire that reaches all the way from wherever they are to your house, walking home while talking on it.
That might mean that when they walk in the door of your home, or when you know they're likely to be coming back home, the image of them holding a telephone with the wire that leads to it will likely come to mind, so you'll remember to tell them about the phone call.
Another example is if you need to remember that when you get to work, you have to give someone some money you owe him. You could perhaps picture coins rolling around your office near your desk, so you might be more likely to think of money when you get there.
Often though, it might be best just to write things down, or to do other such things, like putting something by the front door that you intend to take out with you.
If you're drifting off to sleep and remember you need to do something the next day, another thing you could do is to alter something within reach, so you notice it looks different the next morning, such as putting a book up on end by your bed, which might remind you you were meant to remember something; and then you can try to remember what it was when you notice the difference the next day.
It's possible you'll forget what it was meant to help you remember. So you could try to connect the action with some kind of image you think up; for instance, if you put the book on end to help you remember to post a letter the next day, you could maybe imagine that the book has a slot in it for posting letters in like a pillar box.
To give another example of how images can jog the memory, if you're going out for the evening, and want to be good company, and you'd love to tell some jokes, but you know you never remember any, you could read some, and try to think up images to help you remember them. For instance, if one joke's about a Sunday school teacher asking kids why people ought to be quiet in church, and one kid replying, "Because people are sleeping", you could imagine a church where a group of kids are walking in, only to find the congregation all asleep, lounging around on the pews.
Or you could try and remember the jokes by thinking of keywords that bring them to your memory. For instance, you could try and memorise the phrase 'sleeping church', knowing that when you think of it, it'll probably remind you of the joke, whereas if you tried to keep the whole thing fresh in your memory, it might not stay there. ... Well, it might with a joke that short, but the technique could be used with a much longer joke or story that might not stay there otherwise.
As already mentioned, when trying to remember a list of things, making up a memorable sentence where every word begins with the first letter of something in the list can help. For instance, if you wanted to tell a joke about a church, then one about a helicopter, then one about a tourist, then one about a letter you received, then one about a giant, you could remember the sentence 'chocolate hamsters taste like grain'; and then, thinking of each first letter might jog your memory for the thing each joke was about.
Though the sentence is nonsensical, it'll be easier to remember that than it would be to try using a list of random words to try and remember something, since if a string of words doesn't have any meaning at all, you won't associate any one word in it with the others in your mind, so they might be easier to forget.
The more familiar you are with the information you're trying to remember, the more likely you are to be able to remember it using that technique.
If you're worried you might forget the sentence you're trying to use to remember the other things, you could try thinking of some kind of association the sentence has with the things you're using it to help you remember, using either words or images. For instance, if you were using a sentence about a chocolate hamster to try and remember a list of jokes, you could perhaps remind yourself that it was meant to help you remember jokes by thinking of an image of a hamster made of chocolate doing a spooky high-pitched laugh when someone tells a joke, or think of the fact that a sentence about a chocolate hamster would have to be a joke sentence.
And the more you repeat or think about what you've chosen to bring to mind to help you remember the sentence that's meant to help you remember all the things on your list, and the sentence itself, the more easily you'll be able to recall them later.
But then, it'll be best to remind yourself of the things the sentence is designed to help you remember too from time to time, in case you end up remembering the sentence, but forgetting what it was supposed to help you remember.
Sometimes when you think you've forgotten something, the reality is that you never learned it in the first place well enough for it to stick in your memory.
For instance, if you're always forgetting people's names, the reason might not be a bad memory, so much as the fact that when people tell you their names, you're not really paying much attention in the first place, but thinking of what you can say to them, or worrying about whether you look allright, or thinking about the way they look, or something else like that. It's impossible to pay attention to more than one thing at exactly the same time. You can quickly switch your attention back and forth between one thing and another, but people can't pay attention to two things at exactly the same time. So if you're thinking about something else when someone tells you their name, it'll only half sink in, and that might be the reason it'll be easy to forget.
Or if your attention is fully on the name at the time when they say it, but very quickly moves on to other things, there won't be time for it to sink into your long-term memory, since a thing has to stay in the mind for a little while before it does.
So if you tend to forget names, when someone tells you theirs, it's best to make a point of making a firm mental note of it before the conversation moves on, ... if you remember to. Repeating it back to them can help, or saying it when you say something to them once or twice during the conversation.
And you could try bringing people's names to mind and saying them to yourself when there's a pause in the conversation, and when they walk away. The repetition will likely make them easier to remember next time.
Or some people find it easier to remember names if they associate images with them that they make up. For instance, you could imagine someone who tells you her name's Carol leading a group of carol singers door to door. A lot of names won't have meanings like that, but words like them might make them easier to remember. For instance, the name Lorraine sounds a bit like the words 'the rain', so you could imagine someone called Lorraine standing outdoors with a big rain cloud directly above her head that's pouring rain down on her, while all around her is sunny.
In fact, the mere effort of trying to think up an image that matches the name might well cement the name in your memory, even if you end up not being able to think of one!
It might be possible to do the same thing with first names and surnames, by combining two images. For instance, if someone says her name's Lorraine Harvey, you could maybe imagine her standing under a rain cloud, which then splits in half, and the two halves go sailing off in opposite directions above her.
I suppose one little problem might be trying to stop laughing when you next see someone whose name you've done that with before they notice; but that might not be too difficult.
Naturally it'll be hard to think up an image during the conversation with them, when you're supposed to be concentrating on what they're saying, and saying things in response; but when you've got a moment to reflect afterwards, if you still remember their name, you can try it.
Surnames might often be easy to do that with, since quite a lot mean something already, such as place names, or the names of occupations, like Smith. So you could perhaps imagine the person walking around a place like the one they're named after, or performing the occupation their surname represents - or else you could imagine them sitting watching while an ancient-looking person who might have been one of their ancestors does it.
And some surnames might not have meaning in themselves, but you could try making a play on the words to make something meaningful, or think of something that rhymes with the name, that might be amusing. For instance, the surname Jones rhymes with the word bones, so you could imagine the person as a skeleton.
And again, if you can't think of some kind of substitute word that can spark your imagination to think of an image to associate the name with, the effort of trying might well make it more likely to stick in your mind, because you'll have been focusing on it for a fair bit longer than you would have done otherwise.
Thinking about features of a person's appearance, such as their face and hair colour, while you're thinking about their name, can help you remember it too, since you're more likely to remember the person by their appearance, since you'll have been focusing on it for much longer than you will have done on their name while you were actually talking to them, so it's possible that thoughts about their appearance will jog your memory for the person's name the next time you meet them, if you think about their appearance and their name at the same time for a moment after you meet them the first time, so they go together in your mind.
If you think it's going to be important to remember a person's name in future, you could write it down after you meet them, with a brief note of where you met them and who they are, so if you think you'll be going to a place where you'll meet them again, you could remind yourself before you go.
For instance, if you start keeping a notebook or something similar with little notes in it about people you met at work who might be important to you in future, you could perhaps skim through that to find the information if you're anticipating meeting them again.
If you're going to a reunion or other meeting with people you haven't seen for some time, such as a school reunion, and you're worried you won't be able to put names to the faces of people you used to know any more, it could at least help a bit if you carefully read through a list of the names of the people who are going beforehand, to remind yourself of what they are, and so you can try to picture the people in your mind before you go; and then the names and faces of people might be easier to remember when you get there.
If you meet someone and can remember their face but not their name, it might help you to recall it if you try to remember where you know the person from, what you were doing when you met each other, and so on, since one recollection can jog your memory for another.
It's possible that another reason for not remembering people's names is that you're not really interested in them or their names, being more interested in thinking about what you want to say, or wondering what they'll think of you or something. So one worthwhile strategy might be to think of a good reason why it's worth being interested in their names, and taking an interest in them as people, such as that it might come in handy to know them at some point in the future when you're expected to remember them.
When people are stressed or anxious, it can stop them remembering things so well. If the brain's full of emotion, it makes it harder to pay attention to things and keep them in mind.
Preventing anxiety is partly a matter of doing things to solve the problems that are causing it, naturally, as well as sometimes changing an attitude.
For instance, anxiety about whether or not a person will pass an exam might actually be interfering with them being able to learn what they need to know. One thing that might calm it is thinking, "OK, what exactly am I worried about, and how can I solve the problem? If what I'm really worried about is failing, what's the worst thing that could really happen if I fail? OK, let's just imagine it's just happened. Now what do I do? It's not the end of the world; there are ways forward. Can I retake it? Can I do something similar to what I wanted to do without it? How do I go about achieving that? Or if not, what else could I do that I'd enjoy, and that would give me fulfilment in life?
"OK, so there are things I could do. Now, since the ideal is that I don't fail, what's the best way of preventing myself from doing so? Could I calm myself by thinking through what I need to learn, putting it in order of the most important to the least, as far as I can tell, and then giving attention to trying to learn as much as possible, starting with the most important, and working my way through it in the order of most important to least, and stopping to take in each thing I learn, in the hope that it stays in my brain long enough for it to still be there when I do the exam?"
It might well be worth looking up revision tips and learning skills on the Internet, since the more capable you feel of getting things to stick in your memory, and managing your time revising effectively and so on, the less anxious you'll probably feel.
Also, you could try and think of other ways you could soothe yourself. For example, some people find that taking time out to exercise helps relieve nervous tension so it relaxes them.
Another thing is that there are relaxation techniques that can be done that can lower anxiety levels, and so make it easier to remember things, such as tensing up your muscles tightly and then slowly relaxing the tension, enjoying the sensation of gradual relaxation in them because of the contrast with how they felt when they were tense, and doing that several times in a row, or spending a while concentrating on doing that with one part of the body at a time, for instance tensing up the muscles in the toes first, then the ones in the legs, then the hands and so on.
When revising for a school exam, the material will sink in more if instead of just trying to read as much as you can in the time you've got, you stop several times for a little while to think over what you've just read, so it sinks into your memory better.
Also, it'll sink in better if you're not distracted when you're learning it; even music you like might be enough of a distraction to stop something sinking into your memory well.
People might have to experiment to find out what works best in helping them pay attention.
It's important to allow a bit of time for things to sink in to your memory, since if you expect things to sink in the second you hear them or think of them, you might later think you must have forgotten them, when actually you didn't pay attention to them for long enough to have learned them in the first place. It's normal for people to forget a lot of what they hear or see the first time they hear or read or see it, because their attention moves straight on to other things over and over again, so there just isn't time for everything to sink in.
When reading something you'd like to stick in your mind, stopping every so often, perhaps at every new heading, and mentally summarising to yourself everything you've learned so far, can help refresh it in the mind, so it's more likely to stay there for long enough for it to go into the long-term memory, and so stay in the mind for longer.
Also, if you skim over the headings and any chapter summaries before you try learning the whole thing, it'll be easier to remember, because it'll seem more familiar when you come to read it, and it might make more sense, because you'll have more of an idea of where it's leading, so you might understand the context of it better.
Also, if you try to remember the headings, recalling them can jog your memory for the information under them. You could skim over them again when you've finished learning what's in the book you're trying to learn from, to see if you can remember what's under each one ; and if you can't recall what's under a heading, you could read the information again.
Also, giving yourself little test questions, or answering any questions that are at the ends of the chapters of any book you're revising from, can help, because it'll bring things to the memory that might have been on the way to being forgotten otherwise, and then they might stay there for longer; or you'll realise that you have forgotten some things, and go back and read them again. Writing down questions to think about, or a brief summary of the main points of a section of a chapter you've just read, can mean you can read them later to see if you can still recall the details, so if you can't, you can refresh your memory if you have time.
Or if you're learning a poem or a speech, reciting it bit by bit, building up to reciting bigger bits as you go along, will likely mean it's easier to remember than it would be if you tried to remember the whole thing at once before reciting it.
It's often best not to underline anything the first time you read it, for the purpose of skimming through it and reading the underlined bits later to jog your memory, since until you've understood it as a whole, you won't really know what the most important points are; so it's best to read it first, and then to go back with greater understanding and underline what you've discovered are the main points then.
It can also help to stop for a little break every so often, for refreshment, and to mull over what's been learned, because reminding yourself of it and thinking it through a bit will help you keep it in mind. Also, trying to concentrate on one thing for too long will tire the brain out and make it more difficult to concentrate; the mind can wander after a while, and if you're fed up of learning something by the time you stop, you'll want to do something completely different and put it out of your mind, so you won't be spending any time thinking it through, so the opportunity to remind yourself of it so it's more likely to go into your long-term memory because you've spent longer thinking about it, will have been lost.
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The End
Note that if you choose to try out some or all of the recovery techniques described in this article, they may take practice before they begin to work.
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Disclaimer:
The articles are written in such a way as to convey the impression that they are not written by an expert, so as to make it clear that the advice should not be followed without question.
The author has a qualification endorsed by the Institute of Psychiatry and has led a group for people recovering from anxiety disorders and done other such things; yet she is not an expert on people's problems, and has simply taken information from books and articles that do come from people more expert in the field.
There is no guarantee that the solutions the people in the articles hope will help them will work for everybody, and you should consider yourself the best judge of whether to follow their example in trying them out.
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