I believe brain improvement, and therefore memory improvement, is arguably more crucial today than ever before in history. Why? Because there’s more demand on your brain that there ever was in history! Think about it. The richest people today are the ones who use their brains. It’s no longer the ones with the biggest muscles!

In the modern society, knowledge is power. That’s why there’s a record number of books released every year. That’s why there’s thousands of courses, seminars, workshops conducted worldwide. There’s definitely no lack of information, there’s only a lack in our memory power. Imagine what would happen if you can memorize (and thus learn) more than what the average people could?

After all, time is the only resource you can’t get more of. To be able to learn faster and more efficiently than any other is the best leverage you can get!

In this article, I want to show you how you can easily do that… even if you are in an age where you think that’s not possible. Excited yet?

Memory Improvement Habit #1: Memory Exercises

Use it or lose it.

There’s more than a dozen memory techniques that you can use to remember anything from a list of random numbers to faces and names… but they would all be useless if you don’t keep your mind fit in the first place.

It’s like installing the latest operating system in a 10 years old computer. It just wouldn’t run!

I’m sorry to tell you that there’s no magic pill that you can eat…. or a secret technique that you can adopt to immediately improve your memory (if there is, everyone would be doing it). Just like any lasting changes you want to occur, a change in your lifestyle is required if you want to improve your memory. It’s just like losing weight – you need exercise and a healthy diet on a daily basis for the rest of your life if you want to keep healthy.

Unfortunately, most of us simply rely too much on technology to do our memorizing. This lack of use causes the lost of our very basic skill – memory. Here are a few changes I suggest you implement:

1. Don’t use a grocery list unless there’s more than 20 items.
2. When someone quote their phone number, don’t immediately whip out your cell phone! Remember them and record it later in the day.
3. Don’t mark important dates such as anniversary and birthdays in your calendar.
4. Don’t use a “to-do” list.

Naturally, you might want to take it easy on yourself. Your life would probably be a mess if you were to immediately get rid of these stuff! In the beginning, put in a conscious effort to remember all the happenings in your life while using these tools as a reminder. As your memory gradually improves, you can then slowly discard them.

Memory Improvement Habit #2: Nutrition

Consume more brain-healthy food. The food you eat affects every function of your body – and this includes your brain.

The more balanced your diet is, the better your brain will function. As a general rule, this means you should consume more green leafy vegetables although I also recommend a medium portion of meat because vitamin B12, crucial for healthy cognitive functions, cannot be found in any plant sources.

For more information on brain food, simply follow the link my post on the subject.

Memory Improvement Habit #3: Exercise

Do your exercises. Contrary to what some people may have told you, physical exercise do have a positive effect on your mental health. If you want learn more of the effects of physical exercise on your brain health, simply follow the link to my post on the subject.

Memory Improvement Habit #4: Brain Exercises

Brain exercises are similar to memory exercises, but unlike the latter, the former keeps the whole brain active. Why is this important to your memory?

Though no scientific study has proven this to be true, I’ve always believed holistic health is always crucial to the effective functioning of our body. For example, scientific studies today have shown a healthy heart benefits your mental health. If anyone said that a decade ago, doctors would have laughed and dismissed it as another quack.

By the same principle, I believe keeping your whole brain fit is crucial for the proper function of your memory. After all, only a few parts of your brain are involved in memory – that much we know as fact. Therefore, Brain improvement = Memory improvement.

But before you go out to purchase a brain fitness program, here’s a fair warning: not all programs are made equal. Here’s a post on how to find out if your brain fitness program is truly effective or just a waste of time.

But in 1998, a clinical study on the hippocampus (this is the part of your brain that’s responsible for long term memories) indicated that your hippocampus is able to generate new neurons even if you’re in your 90s. The study suggests not only that memory loss is preventable… it’s also potentially reversible.

From that fateful year on, there’s a slew of studies that discovered similar findings… and thus usher in the age of brain plasticity. Brain plasticity is the malleability of your brain – the theory that your brain is alterable and improvable regardless of your age and condition. (Even people who were born with half a brain were able to adapt and thrive).

In this article, I want to introduce you to a few memory exercises to alter your brain and improve your memory. But before I go into the meat and potatoes, let’s first understand how your brain. I think this is crucial to your understanding of the exercises…

Your brain consists of billion of neurons (brain cells). These neurons connect to each other with what is called a synapse. Neurons die and synapse break down every minute of your life. It is this fact that led scientists to believe cognitive decline is inevitable.

To prevent degeneration, those neurons and synapses would have to be stimulated. Like any other parts of your body, your brain adapts and grows as it’s challenged. So when you challenge your brain, it grows and strengthens neurons. At the same time, synapses that are repeatedly used becomes stronger and less likely to break down.

All these neurons and synapses are responsible for all functions in your body, including everything from your heart beat to walking to processing what you see and remembering the stimulants that comes from your 5 senses.

Principle #1: Working at your threshold

Thus this is principle #1 in improving memory: The more you perform memory exercises, the greater the improvement you’ll benefit from. The strengthen the neurons and synapses responsible for your memory, you’ll simply have to spend some time challenging your memory.

Here’s what you can do: For once, don’t use that grocery list. Try and memorize them instead. Initially, start with 5 items off that list and gradually add one item every 2 to 3 days thereof.

Remembering 5 items should not be a problem but as increase the things you have to remember, you’ll soon have some trouble. That is your memory threshold. Constantly work at overcoming your threshold. This is the same principle of bodybuilding. A bodybuilder will eventually get exhausted lifting a pencil a hundred thousand million times but he won’t grow bigger muscles for it. To build bigger muscles, he has to carry weights that are slightly below his threshold.

Principle #2: Association and Reasoning

Sometimes there’s no need to memorize.

I remember the times when I was in school and I was asked to memorize a bunch of financial formulas. I hate memorizing. So what I did was understand how that formula was formulated. By understanding how it came about, I was able to recall it without actively memorizing it.

In a grocery list example, always tell yourself why you need to purchase a particular item. If you need milk, is it because you want stronger bones or is it because you’re craving for a plate of spaghetti carbonara? Your desires is obviously far more difficult to forget than the list of items in your grocery list. By associating those items with your desires, you’re far more likely to remember them.

Here’s another example: phone numbers. Today, most people would whip out their phones to record phone numbers because they simply can’t remember them. But here’s what you can do: associate phone numbers with a date. Let’s say the phone number is 0422084032.

If say… a hypothetical person would be 32 years old by 04/22/0840, would those numbers be easier to remember? Most experts in memory (people who weren’t born with photographic memory but were able to train for it) associate a list of items they have to remember with a story.

So if you need…

1. A carton of milk
2. A bag of peanuts
3. A bag of crackers
4. A bottle of coke
5. A clove of garlic

The story would go like this: Mary is drinking milk while eating peanuts while her husband is eating crackers with garlic and drinking coke.

That memory exercise alone would explode your ability to memorize daily items.