How to remember more

Focus on one thing at a time. Face it: you can’t remember every fact that comes your way. Decide what’s really important to remember and pay close attention when this new information is presented.

Be an active listener. Hearing is not the same thing as listening. Some people find it useful to jot down notes or ‘play back’ the gist of what they’ve just heard, as in ‘Let me see if I understand you correctly. You want me to…’

Eliminate distractions. When you were younger, it may have been easy to study with the television on or with the radio blaring. Now that you’re older, you probably have to eliminate distractions for best mental performance. Some people find they need total quiet in order to concentrate.

When you’re laying down memory, use as many senses as you can. Years ago many primary school students easily memorised a long list of prepositions by learning to sing them to a familiar tune. They were processing input along several tracks at once: cognitive, visual, auditory and motor. After 50 years the memory is still there.

Practise, practise, practise. Repeated exposure strengthens the brain’s electrical pathways and greatly improves recall. Remember how many hours you spent memorising multiplication tables? Give new learning the time it needs.

Put new information in context. It’s much easier to remember something meaningful than something abstract or random. For the best retention, associate new learning with something you already know. The more linkages you develop around a piece of information, the greater the likelihood that one of them will jog your memory.