There is a big difference between people following daily memorization routines compared to those who put their brain in stagnant situations. Minds require great attention and exercise since these machines are the masters of how a person is able to accomplish daily tasks.

Putting your mind up for a challenge exposes it to active thinking. Memorization is one mental task that you need to do daily. Help keep your mind working in good condition by regularly learning new information everyday. Read books and memorize new names or dates in history.

You can even exercise your mind by simply using mnemonics during a few minutes of your day. Try the link method. It is a mnemonic which lets you use your creative side yet allows you to retain new information by associating unfamiliar objects to familiar ones.

-scissors
-boat
-porch
-dog

The items above aren’t related to one another but you can associate them together as one by using the link method. All you have to do is to imagine that you are chasing down the scissor all the way to your stairs. You went down the living room and found a boat tied to one of your stair steps. You then hopped in the boat and allowed it to take you outside as you continue to chase the scissors but you lost sight of it. You looked up the porch and saw your dog trying to show you something. The boat docked on your porch and you found the scissor lying flat on the porch floor.

You can try to expand your list with other items and begin linking them together and create a mini link story such as this one.

Do you know the best and simplest thing you can do to be able to remember easily? You don’t need anything at all, just make sure that whatever it is you’re trying to memorize, that you do your best to focus on it.

When you are in the process of learning, it’s important to focus on what makes an object significant to you. Try to look at its general characteristics if it is an object. Pay attention to the size (is it extremely large?); its color (bright or dull); shape, texture, etc… If it is a fact, a set of information or numbers, try to learn the details and what makes it special.

People need to focus on the important points to help them remember the information fast. And of course, a way to keep the human mind healthy and active is if it practices brain exercises.

A mnemonic method called the Snapshot technique concentrates in making you memorize anything by using visual descriptions and connecting objects. Let’s say you have a gold fish, blower, paint brush and dog collar in your list. What you need to do is to simply create a story (similar to a movie) between the four items. The reason that you need to connect the objects is because they completely don’t have anything to do with each other, so association is used.

First, visualize a gold fish swimming in a pool. It hops out of the pool and goes under a blower to dry itself. Then, just as when the blower is about to turn itself off, a paint brush comes tickling the blower all over. Both of them tumble down on a dog collar and get strapped.

What’s needed here is to get motion in to the objects. The more vivid your imagination is, the better.

Though memorization isn’t really something you like to do, it’s needed. We have to realize that memorization in its simplest sense is when were able to greet our loved ones during their birthdays.  It’s the time when were able to finish and submit our projects, proposals and such to meet a deadline. It’s when we remember to eat lunch because its half past 12. There are so many things we do that require our memory.

To start getting better in memorization, after taking in anything which you need to remember, try thinking about it intently. This doesn’t only make you remember it easily but the possibility of recalling it later is going to be high. So, try and do this and see what happens.

You can try memorization exercises too. Mnemonics is a good aid for improving memory and you can do this readily without spending much time. In using any mnemonic method, keep in mind that anything you
need to do involves imagination and association. Imagination for how well you can think of normal things in a silly manner and association for how you deal in keeping two completely different objects connected together.

Try to think about a meeting with a friend you haven’t seen in ages. Since there are a lot of things going on in your mind at the moment, a sudden change with your daily routine could be something that you won’t pay attention to. So, pretend that you have a meeting with your friend at 6 pm tomorrow at a bowling alley. To help you remember this important event, you need to associate something already familiar to you to this new situation that is about to take place.

Think of the number 6 as a bowling pin and the zeros as two bowling balls sliding down in an alley and voila, you instantly have two things associated together as one. This way, you won’t forget the appointment with your friend.

You can practice association with any object you want. The simpler the better, but you can also make it as complicated as you want to challenge your brain. There are no limitations when it comes to improving ones memory.

It isn’t too difficult to keep a good memory. Reading newspapers every morning and doing the crossword puzzle is already a healthy way of allowing your brain to exercise.

There is nothing difficult about keeping your memory at par with what it can potentially do for you. You can start teaching yourself how to use mnemonics, a memorization technique which gives various methods for you to choose from in keeping great memorization skills.

Try using the Number method for your memorization exercises. For instance you have the numbers 1-4. Think of words that best rhyme with each of the numbers.

For our example, we have the following:

One = gun
Two= dew
Three = tree
Four = floor

Next, pretend that you need to keep in mind four laboratory apparatuses.

1 (gun) = test tube
2 (dew) = forceps
3 (tree) = beaker
4 (floor) = clay triangle

Now, you need to make sure you remember these items in order. This is called the Peg word system since what you do is associate a peg word to a particular item in the same order. You also need to be a little creative at this time.

So, to do this, think of a gun using test papers as bullets to aim at the test tube. The shattered pieces of the test tube then become morning dew and you try grabbing it by using forceps. As you turn, a tree with a beak collects twigs from the ground to create a nest.  The tree then kneels down and a family of little triangles made of clay starts to climb the tree’s branches, settles in the nest and starts to spread clay on the nest floor.

Your examples need not to be perfect. As long as you understand what you’re trying to memorize, then it should be good for your memory as well.

Ever heard of repressed memories? How about being told by someone you know that he remembers something but just can’t get it exactly? This is a common sign of memory decline and already a problem among millions and millions of people.

You can do something to help yourself from having a memory issue by maintaining proper mental exercises and a healthy lifestyle. It means you need to maintain a healthy body overall.

But you can start using simple memory improvement techniques like the Link method. Memorization is rooted to how well you can create associations of things that are unfamiliar to something you’re extremely familiar with.

Car, Pillow, Contact Lens, Shampoo

The items above aren’t associated in any way with one another. Let’s use the link method for these items. Start by imagining yourself opening the trunk of the car and as you do, you find a pillow with two brown looking eyes on it jumping up and down inside. Just as you try to grab the pillow, the two brown looking eyes you’ve spotted earlier pop out, then lands on the garage floor and dives in a tub full of shampoo liquid.

Imagine this scenario and the more you rewind it back in your mind, the easier it is for you to spot which items are important and needed for memorization. What’s great is that you didn’t have to force yourself to do anything. You just sat there and imagined. Well done!

Going to an important meeting, an appointment or an agreed date with a friend requires you to remember the date, place and exact time. If you happen to forget, it could destroy your reputation you’ve invested in for a long time (if it’s an office matter) or could cut short the trust of a friend.

You can avoid common problems with memorization such as the one mentioned above when you have an uncluttered mind. It’s important to stop whatever that is causing you to think and decide unclearly over things. It could also be that you have been using too much mental energy to help you get on with your work and when your brain needed to take a rest, you still pushed it to its limit.

If this is the case, then you need to keep your mind active by challenging it with interesting memory boosters. What you can do is to simply take one mnemonic exercise everyday and rehearse it over and over again for a few minutes and you’re done. Yes, it is easy.

Let’s use the link method as an example. Since the link method is the type of mnemonic that deals heavily with association and creativity, it is important for you to start imagining odd-behaving objects because were about to take it to the next level. Pretend that there are two people in the world you always get confused of over the other.

Their names are as follows:

Mr. John Brethover and Mr. John Bredthoner

These two gentlemen both live on Cherry Street. How to distinguish which is which? Imagine the first John, who always holds his breath each time he passes over a bridge. So the first distinguishing factor here is that you named Mr. Brethover as John I and imagined him as the John who always holds his breath when passing over a bridge. Next is another John. But picture him as a person who always carries bread in his coat and puts so much toner on his face.

Just by setting the two John’s family names and using the link method to each of their last names, you are then able to
distinguish and remember which John of the two is which. Keep on practicing to broaden your association for memory improvement.

A healthy lifestyle is the good way to go in battling memorization issues. You may not know it but what you eat and the things that you do everyday affect the way you perform mental tasks, such as learning and memorizing.

Just as you do regular exercises for your body which allows good oxygen to flow to your brain; it’s also good to observe good sleeping habits. Proper sleep (sleeping up to 8 hours) overnight is a good way to battle memory lapses later on. Also, it keeps you active on any memory-requiring activities that are going to go your way, allowing you to concentrate more.

As for a dose of your regular brain exercises, try the journey system. It’s a form of Loci system. So pretend that you have a box of chocolates, computer mouse, shoes and an apple to memorize. You take them with you as you travel along the highway going to the office since you’ll be taking the same route again going back home. This is important because it matters if you know an area very well or not. If not, then the journey system wouldn’t be too useful.

So imagine yourself driving to work. First, picture a box of chocolates replacing all the large billboards you usually pass
everyday, imagine them hanging there, big and wide similar to a movie screen. Next, you approach slow traffic just beneath the overpass. Picture the cars passing on it as computer mouse cars traveling really, really fast in lanes. After that, you try to beat the time so you won’t go late and pass by your usual lunch place.  Instead of a huge hamburger on the roof, you see a huge pair of shoes. And lastly, you reach the parking lot and greet the talking apple at the gate who is normally the polite old security guard. Silly, yet simple and effective.

So try to alter the normal things you see everyday to something extraordinary and unbelievable. Your memory cells will thank you for it.

Our brain is such an amazing part of our body since it does all of the verbal and mental tasks that we handle everyday. This means that most of what we see, hear, smell, say and feel is all registered by our brain. Our brain is also responsible in how we think and speak.

You can’t be completely on guard with all the things that comes in and out of your mind. Stress, for example is a great memory buster. It’s when were stressed that we can’t think straight at all. It’s when were stressed that makes us think everything is just turning out bad and makes us feel even worse. Its when were stressed that the glucose in our brain decreases because cortisol destroys glucose.

But even then, practicing a good memorization technique can still help. Consider the Peg method, a way to improve your memorization skill. Using the peg method can be very useful in memorizing a long list. You can start with the numbers 0-9. So you have a way to remember each number, think of a word that rhymes with the number.

For example: one = nun; two = brew; three = tree etc

By thinking of any words that rhyme with the numbers, it helps in establishing relation with what you need to memorize. Let’s say you need to memorize Acrophobia, Androphobia and Arsonphobia in a particular order. Since they all sound alike, you can number them as 1, 2 and 3.

1 (nun) = Acrophobia = fear of heights
2 (brew) = Androphobia = fear of men
3 (tree) = Arsonphobia = fear of fire

First, think of a nun with Acrophobia trembling each time she goes up on the second floor. Next, a brewed coffee has Androphobia because it cools down each time a man orders it, and lastly a tree runs up the mountains whenever a fire approaches; proof that it has Arsonphobia.

Try creating your very own peg words and even extend your list up to 20 or more. You’ll find it easy to memorize items.

Click HERE to learn more about memorizing using Peg method and other memory improvement techniques:

There are so many factors in life which could easily affect a person’s memorization ability. We may not know all of it consciously but with the fast-paced life that everyone is living now, we could be doing something already that silently harms our memory.

As many of you are already aware, keeping your brain active by playing puzzles and word games everyday helps battle memorization decline. It even enriches your vocabulary and the way you think. Other mind-enriching exercises are I.Q tests, use of flash cards, memory tests, eating good food and of course mnemonics. As described, mnemonics is simply a tool, an aid to helping a person enhance his memory capabilities.

Using mnemonics doesn’t limit you. It gives you various methods to choose from. The best part in using mnemonics as well is that it doesn’t forcibly use a type of mnemonic method just because you prefer to learn this way or that way; you can choose which one you’d like most or you can use them all.

An example is the Snapshot technique. It’s a mnemonic that lets you work on visual images you could create. This is an easy method to use especially if you’re the type that imagines most of the time. Let’s say we want to remember a hose, dog, tortoise and pool.

The goal here is to associate all four items in one scene; just like in a movie. Imagine a hose spraying water on a dog for
crossing over the lawn, the dog is startled and as it runs, it stumbles on a tortoise. The tortoise wants to give the dog a lesson for the disturbance it caused, so the tortoise jumps in the pool tugging the dog along.

Since you have all the items in one scenario, it isn’t too difficult to take it all in.

Dealing with memorization problems does have its effect on us and how we perceive the task. But it doesn’t have to be difficult at all. We still have a good chance of improving our memorization capabilities if we just practice.

One way to do this is to concentrate on what you see so you can recall it later. There is a mnemonic method called the Loci System.

Now, how does this work?

The idea works with the places or landmarks that you see everyday. And since you see them everyday, they are all familiar to you so there wouldn’t be any problem in trying to recall them. Though you can apply flexibility in using this method, it is highly recommended that you deal with the areas that are most familiar to you.

For example, paper, aluminum foil, doll, lotion and eggs are the items which you need to remember. You can start grabbing things that you see in your mind and relate it to any of the items mentioned above. Start with the paper and pretend that you’re going downstairs. As you go, imagine the stairs made of paper, thin and white. You then turn on your aluminum foil-wrapped TV as you sit in the living room. Next, you stare out the window and you see a doll mowing your lawn. As you wait anxiously for breakfast, you storm in to the kitchen and you see a bottle of lotion using an orange juice maker, and then you see the eggs, beating each other up inside the bowl.

So, all you need to do is create a completely wild scenario using the items that you need to remember, together with what you’re going to relate them with.

Click HERE to learn more about memorizing using the Loci method and other memory improvement techniques.