By Patricia Curtis
Can’t remember where you put your glasses? Blanked on your new
colleague’s name? “Forgetting these types of things is a
sign of how busy we are,” says Zaldy S. Tan, MD, director of
the Memory Disorders Clinic at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
in Boston. “When we’re not paying good attention, the
memories we form aren’t very robust, and we have a problem
retrieving the information later.”
The key, says Harry Lorayne,
author of Ageless Memory: Simple Secrets for Keeping Your Brain
Young, is to get your brain in shape. “We exercise our
bodies, but what good is that great body if you don’t have the
mental capabilities to go with it?” Sure, you could write
everything down, keep organized lists and leave electronic notes on
your BlackBerry, cell phone or PDA. But when you don’t have
access to those aids, or if you want to strengthen your brain, try
these expert-recommended strategies to help you remember.
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Brain Freeze: “What the heck is his
name?”
1. Pay attention. When you’re introduced to
someone, really listen to the person’s name. Then, to get a
better grasp, picture the spelling. Ask, “Is that Kathy with a
K or a C?” Make a remark about the name to help lock it in
(“Oh, Carpenter — that was my childhood best friend’s
last name”), and use the name a few times during the
conversation and when you say goodbye.
2. Visualize the name. For hard-to-remember
monikers (Bentavegna, Wobbekind), make the name meaningful. For
Bentavegna, maybe you think of a bent weather vane. Picture it.
Then look at the person, choose an outstanding feature (bushy
eyebrows, green eyes) and tie the name to the face. If Mr.
Bentavegna has a big nose, picture a bent weather vane instead of
his nose. The sillier the image, the better.
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3. Create memorable associations. Picture Joe
Everett standing atop Mount Everest. If you want to remember that
Erin Curtis is the CEO of an architectural firm, imagine her
curtsying in front of a large building, suggests Gini Graham Scott,
PhD, author of 30 Days to a More Powerful Memory.
4. Cheat a little. Supplement these tips with some
more concrete actions. When you get a business card, after the
meeting, jot down a few notes on the back of the card (“red
glasses, lives in Springfield, went to my alma mater”) to help
you out when you need a reminder.
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Brain Freeze: “Where in the world did I leave my
glasses?”
5. Give a play-by-play. Pay attention to what
you’re doing as you place your glasses on the end table. Remind
yourself, “I’m putting my keys in my coat pocket,” so
you have a clear memory of doing it, says Scott.
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7.聽Make it a habit. Put a small basket on a
side table. Train yourself to put your keys, glasses, cell phone or
any other object you frequently use (or misplace) in the basket –
every time.
Brain Freeze: “What else was I supposed to do
today?”
8. Start a ritual. To remind yourself of a chore
(write a thank-you note, go to the dry cleaner), give yourself an
unusual physical reminder. You expect to see your bills on your
desk, so leaving them there won’t necessarily remind you to pay
them. But place a shoe or a piece of fruit on the stack of bills,
and later, when you spot the out-of-place object, you’ll
remember to take care of them, says Carol Vorderman, author of
Super Brain: 101 Easy Ways to a More Agile Mind.
9.聽Sing it. To remember a small group of
items (a grocery list, phone number, list of names, to-do list),
adapt it to a well-known song, says Vorderman. Try “peanut
butter, milk and eggs” to the tune of “Twinkle, Twinkle,
Little Star,” “Happy Birthday” or even nursery
rhymes.
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World
10. Try mnemonic devices. Many of us learned
“ROY G BIV” to remember the colors of the rainbow, or
“Every Good Boy Deserves Favors” to learn musical notes.
Make up your own device to memorize names (Suzanne’s kids are
Adam, Patrick and Elizabeth, or “APE”), lists (milk,
eggs, tomatoes, soda, or “METS”) or computer commands (to
shut down your PC, hit Control+Alt+Delete, or “CAD”).
11. Use your body. When you have no pen or paper
and are making a mental grocery or to-do list, remember it
according to major body parts, says Scott. Start at your feet and
work your way up. So if you have to buy glue, cat food, broccoli,
chicken, grapes and toothpaste, you might picture your foot stuck
in glue, a cat on your knee looking for food, a stalk of broccoli
sticking out of your pants pocket, a chicken pecking at your belly
button, a bunch of grapes hanging from your chest and a toothbrush
in your mouth.
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12.聽Go Roman. With the Roman room technique,
you associate your grocery, to-do or party-invite list with the
rooms of your house or the layout of your office, garden or route
to work. Again, the zanier the association, the more likely
you’ll remember it, says Scott. Imagine apples hanging from the
chandelier in your foyer, spilled cereal all over the living room
couch, shampoo bubbles overflowing in the kitchen sink and cheese
on your bedspread.
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Brain Freeze: “What’s my password for this
website?”
13. Shape your numbers. Assign a shape to each
number: 0 looks like a ball or ring; 1 is a pen; 2 is a swan; 3
looks like handcuffs; 4 is a sailboat; 5, a pregnant woman; 6, a
pipe; 7, a boomerang; 8, a snowman; and 9, a tennis racket. To
remember your ATM PIN (4298, say), imagine yourself on a sailboat
(4), when a swan (2) tries to attack you. You hit it with a tennis
racket (9), and it turns into a snowman (8). Try forgetting that
image!
14.聽Rhyme it. Think of words that rhyme with
the numbers 1 through 9 (knee for 3, wine for 9, etc.). Then create
a story using the rhyming words: A nun (1) in heaven (7) banged her
knee (3), and it became sore (4).
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Brain Freeze: “The word is on the tip of my
tongue.”
15. Practice your ABCs. Say you just can’t
remember the name of that movie. Recite the alphabet (aloud or in
your head). When you get to the letter R, it should trigger the
name that’s escaping you: Ratatouille. This trick
works when taking tests too.
Brain Freeze: “I just can’t memorize anything
anymore!”
16. Read it, type it, say it, hear it. To memorize
a speech, toast or test material, read your notes, then type them
into the computer. Next, read them aloud and tape-record them.
Listen to the recording several times. As you work on memorizing,
remember to turn off the TV, unplug your iPod and shut down your
computer; you’ll retain more.
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Life
17.聽Use color. Give your notes some color
with bolded headings and bulleted sections (it’s easier to
remember a red bullet than running text).
18.聽Make a map. Imagine an intersection and
mentally place a word, fact or number on each street corner.
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