How to Boost Your Memory by 300%

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Have you ever known someone who seemed to have a stellar memory and wondered how they did it?

As you are reading this sentence, there are people living who have such keen memories that they can recite entire plays, hundreds of songs and even entire books from memory.

Can you imagine how valuable this kind of skill would be to you? Well, you’re about to learn a few simple strategies that you can use to increase your memory by as much as 300%.

The Nature of Memory

When you hear a number or a name, do you find that it’s easy to forget it quickly if you don’t repeat it to yourself over and over and over? If so, you’re probably learning that this is not the most efficient way to recall information.

This is because repetition is only one thing which causes your mind to remember something. People recall information which the brain considers being more relevant. It’s that simple.

We see repeated information as relevant, but it’s not the only criterion. Considering this, it ought to be easy to memorise information quickly if you can just find a quicker way of letting your mind know that information is relevant.

Three Ways to Make Information Relevant

1. Emotional Context

The first way to make information more relevant is by providing it with a richer emotional context. If your mind has a powerful emotional context to associate with a piece of information, it is more likely to remember it.

How can you put a piece of information into a richer context? By simply adding additional sensory stimuli to it: auditory, visual or tactile (feeling- and motion-based).

For example, if you simply hear the piece of information, you are only using the auditory portion of your brain and thus making a weaker impression.

If you take the time to write the information that you want to remember, and if you look at it and read it out loud, you’ll stimulate the visual and tactile parts of your brain.

This will make you more likely to remember the information. If you’re looking for an example of this, just think about how much more quickly you memorise a phone number if you dial it a few times instead of simply listening to it.

TIP: The next time you want to memorise something, sit down and physically write it out a few times. Then say it aloud a few times, with some emotion in your voice.

This will give it a visual, auditory and tactile (in the practice of writing it) context.

2. Supporting Information

Information is more likely to be relevant by your brain if you attach it to other supporting information. This is because your mind recognises the information as being a part of a larger concept and therefore more relevant.

For instance, it’s much easier to remember words if you hear them sung than if you hear them spoken. This is because the melody and rhythm of the song provides the lyrics with supporting information.

You can also remember people’s names more easily if you find out things like where they are from or what they do for a living.

TIP: The next time you memorise a piece of information, either put it to music or learn some other supporting information to go with it. Say, when meeting unfamiliar people, ask them where they’re from and memorise their names as things like “Mark from Tampa” instead of just “Mark.”

3. Take Ownership of Information

The next time you want to remember a piece of information, sit down and write out a description of why the information is important to you. This is especially effective when you learned something from a book, such as a quote or a concept.

To illustrate, if you come across a quote that you like, write a paragraph about it or relate it to another quote that you like. This will help you take ownership of the information by developing your own thought process around it.

TIP: Start keeping a book of important quotes and concepts that you want to remember and get into the habit of reading a few pages out of it every morning.