The Inconspicuous Problem Of Today: Memory

Hey everyone! Sorry I haven't posted in so long but exams do take up a lot of one's time! Anyways, don't we all wish for an absolutely fantabulous memory at one point or the other? Don't we? Maybe if you forget that really really long answer you spent all night trying to learn - smack in the middle of an exam. Or if you forgot your keys at the office. Maybe you forget that that delicious cake you're baking needs sodium bicarbonate (in other words, baking soda) to rise and realize it only after you take a flat, mushy mess out of the oven.

It's in situations like these that we all wish for a better memory - and maybe you'll be a bit closer to that dream now. :) Oh, and just in case you're wondering, I got these tips from a memory-improving book I read a while ago by Nishant Kasibhatla.

• First of all, you have to stop telling yourself you have a bad memory. The more you say it, the more you believe it, and the more you believe it, the worse your memory gets. So, never ever say things like, "I have the world's worst memory ever!" or "I can never remember things!". Have someone near you remind you of this if you're used to making such remarks.

• Next, understand that your brain works better with pictures than with words. So if you've got to remember something like a speech for a seminar or lecture :) try to create pictures for certain keywords and use the pictures to create a kind of story that's similar to what your speech says.

• The next and last key to a really great memory for everyday things is to form associations in your head. Link what you need to remember to something you will mostly or surely do or see. That will trigger your memory and you'll remember whatever it was that you had to remember. For example, if you're like me, you'll forget where you left the keys to your house or you'll forget to return a book you borrowed from a friend. (That was a common and pretty embarrassing situation with me. :D) Okay now, when you put your keys by the printer, create an association in your head linking both of them and focus really hard. Maybe the printer is printing out dozens of keys and the room is filled with them. The next time you think of your keys, if you focused properly, you will be reminded of the printer printing keys, and you'll remember where you put them. In case of the book, I'm pretty sure we all wear shoes or footwear when we leave the house. So think of the book or magazine rolled up and stuck in the shoes, which are walking on their own. The next time you look at those shoes, you can't help but see them walking with the books rolled up in them. 

• This is one thing you have to do when you're improving your memory - try and think of absolutely outrageous situations and focus when registering them. Outrageous events tend to kind of stand out in your memory and you get reminded of them more easily since they don't happen day to day!

So, you don't have an excuse for forgetting your keys at the office anymore. Neither do you have one for a badly burnt batch of biscuits because you forgot they were in the oven. You cannot say that you have a bad memory anymore. It's just how much you exercise it.

As always, read, enjoy and please do comment!

Catch you later!

Spencer  :)