If you set the information that you need to know to a catchy tune, it’ll be easier to remember it. Try out nursery rhymes or pop songs to get the information stuck in your head.
Some people can also benefit from reading the information out loud as they write it. This will help your brain to “access” the information, making it easier to recall when you need it. If writing the information 20 times doesn’t help, try 50 or 100 times. It might be time consuming, but it’s worth the effort if the information is important.
This is a helpful technique for studying for a test or exam. You can even write up mini-quizzes as soon as you finish reading, and then take them a few hours later to see what you remember.
If you have trouble recalling your grocery list or other lists of a lot of information, a memory palace can be extremely helpful. For instance, if you need to remember to get toilet paper, milk, and eggs at the grocery store, you can imagine your office covered in toilet paper because your boss went crazy and threw it there. Then, when you go sit in your desk chair, you sit on a carton of eggs and your boss pours a glass of milk on your head!
For instance, if you need to remember to pick up cake for your friend’s birthday party, you can visualize how funny it would be to push their face into the cake when they blow out their candles! Make the made up story as vivid as possible so you don’t forget it.
For example, if you always make a cup of coffee before you leave the house, you can place a sticky note reminder on the “on” button of the machine so that you can’t make your coffee until you look at the note.
For example, if you meet someone named Rebecca, and she has red glasses, you can remember her name by associating Rebecca with red glasses in your mind.
If you do begin to use these apps, remember to do it every day or you won’t notice much of a difference in your memorization abilities.
You can also use a plain notebook as a planner by converting it into a bullet journal.
Sometimes things like email programs will have a calendar that you can mark important dates in, like birthdays. Some will send you an email notice within 10 days of the birthday so you can remember to get a present or make reservations. You can even make a little “notice board” for sticky notes to hang in your kitchen, office, or bedroom, and you can make a habit of looking at it every day.
For example, if you have a friend’s birthday coming up, you might ask a different friend to text you a reminder when they buy their gift so you can remember to buy yours.
For instance, if you set a reminder to tell you to put a book in your backpack, move the book to your backpack as soon as you see the reminder.
This is especially helpful for daily tasks, like closing the garage door or locking the front door. You can make a habit to delete these photos at the end of the day so your photo roll isn’t cluttered.
For example, if you’re in charge of buying concert tickets for a group of 4 people, but you forget to wake up early enough and they sell out, you should have a back-up plan in place. In this case, your back-up plan could be buying the tickets secondhand on a re-selling website.
