ByEditor
Top Tips for Improving Memory!
At a recent Support Group meeting we had a presentation by a former volunteer on attention and memory skills and strategies that can help.
So if paying attention to things is tricky, try some of these:
• Do one thing at a time.
• If you’re doing a list of things, tell yourself ‘5 more’ to help you keep focus.
• Take a note of what distracts you – knowledge is power!
• If you are easily diverted by visual distractions, try blinkers or physically blocking the distractions out.
If remembering things are difficult, give some of these ideas a go:
• Rehearse information over and over again to help it stick.
• Try visualising the things which you need to recall.
• Associate new information with information you already hold – like if you meet a ‘Carol’ and your aunt is called ‘Carol’, then make that connection in your mind.
• Chunk information into smaller, more manageable bits e.g. break phone numbers up into shorter sequences.
• Create a story or rhyme that links the new information you are trying to learn.
• And of course, carry a notebook and pen at all times or spend some time figuring out what marvellous reminder functions are available to you on your mobile!
The important thing is to give these strategies some time- change may be slow but once you’ve figured out which strategies are best for you, it will be well worth the effort.
If you would like to research information about attention, memory and other related issues, have a look around this website http://www.projectlearnet.org/. Some of the information is aimed at students, but most of it applies to all ages.
Editor administrator
About the author