15 Ways You Can Help Improve Your Memory

We've all had those moments — you forget where you put your car keys, can't remember someone's name or walk into a room and don't recall why. But if you start to have these memory lapses more often or they start to impact your daily life, you may have a memory problem.

If you're feeling forgetful, you're not alone: Around 40% of those over 65 will experience some form of memory loss due to age.¹ In addition to speaking with your doctor, these 15 tips can help improve your memory — whether it's short-term or long-term memory — and yes, help you remember where you put those keys.

1. Focus on One Task at a Time

Want to do it all? Then do it one step at a time — and not all at once — to improve your memory function. While there is often a desire for people to multitask, it's more effective to monotask.

Staying focused on one task at a time (monotasking) allows your mind to fully commit to the information at hand and complete it without distractions. Conversely, multitasking can lead you to making errors, becoming distracted or losing your focus. Focusing on one task at a time for set periods benefits you, in that it helps your working memory when it comes to reasoning, learning and comprehension.²

2. Get Your Rest

Getting enough sleep is an important part of keeping your memory in top shape. In fact, not sleeping enough can lower your ability to learn new information by up to 40%.³

Adults need between seven and nine hours of sleep each night for their brains to function properly. During the four sleep cycles you go through each night, your brain creates new pathways for the information you've learned that day. Without enough good-quality sleep, your brain can't create new pathways for the information you have learned, nor can the brain prepare to take in new learning the following day.³

A lack of sleep also negatively impacts your decision-making skills and your behavior.³ Rather than trying to cram for a test by staying up all night, try to get the proper amount of rest that you'll need to remember the information you've already learned and function at your best the next day.

3. Say Things Out Loud

When studying information, your brain interprets and stores that information in three ways:⁴

• By sounds (acoustically)
• By images (visually)
• By meanings (semantically)

Reading information out loud is an acoustic way to store a short-term memory as a long-term one. In fact, studies have shown that by reading or saying things that you want to remember out loud, you perform a type of active learning that is more effective than simply reading or thinking them silently to yourself.⁴

By becoming an active participant in the making of the memory with the act of reading, you are more apt to remember it long term, especially because it's done in your own voice.⁴

4. Write Things Down

Writing down things you need to remember can help you recall them later. Notably, one study showed that the people who wrote things down by hand on paper improved their memory better than those who wrote them down on a tablet or smartphone. Additionally, participants remembered the information they wrote down an hour later better than those who didn't.⁵

Not only will you have the information that you write down to refer to later and refresh your memory, but the tactile act of physically writing down information helps your brain remember it later.⁵ So, if you're learning new information, write it down to better remember it.

5. Stay Organized

With everything in its place, you won't have to guess where things are. That means creating dedicated spots for important items like your keys, and keeping track of all of your appointments in your smartphone or in a physical appointment book.⁶

Being organized is part of the habitual behaviors you can develop to keep your memory in good shape. Staying organized will also reduce your stress levels and help with your mental health, too — all of which help your brain function better.⁷

6. Play Memory Games

Playing board games, video games and virtual reality games aren't just fun — they can actually help your memory. These types of games can help with a variety of factors that affect your memory, such as:⁸

• Cognitive function
• Emotional regulation
• Communication
• Reasoning
• Reaction time
• Problem-solving
• Logical reasoning

So, make time for a little gaming to give your memory a workout while you decompress.

7. Solve Puzzles

By doing a daily crossword puzzle, you may experience 0.5% to 1% less shrinkage in the size of your brain as you age. Specifically, doing crossword puzzles — online or on paper — can slow the shrinkage in your brain's hippocampus and cortex.⁹

For the best results, put aside at least 30 minutes a day to solve crossword puzzles, four times a week. This activity will engage multiple portions of your brain to keep your memory in excellent shape. Plus, they can even be a social activity to do with friends, which may also help with cognition.⁹

8. Exercise Regularly

You probably already know that exercise can improve your physical health, but did you know that it can improve your mental health and memory, too? Regular exercise can:¹⁰

• Increase the amount of new blood vessels in the brain that relate to memory
• Improve the health of new brain cells
• Enlarge the parts of the brain that control memory and thinking
• Improve your mood and sleep, leading to better cognitive memory

To reap the benefits of exercise, try some form of it at a moderate intensity, such as brisk walking, for around 150 minutes per week. Start with a few minutes of exercise per day and slowly work your way up to this number. Another form of exercise that helps with memory is tai chi, a type of martial art that studies have shown helps older adults achieve better memory function.¹⁰

9. Eat a Healthy and Balanced Diet

You are — and remember, as well — what you eat. A nutrient-rich diet can actually help improve your memory, especially if it contains lots of healthy fats and phytonutrients, which are found in plants.¹¹

Avoiding unhealthy fats and generally eating a diet that benefits your health in general can benefit your brain as well. And a healthier brain means better memory and cognitive functioning.¹²

Foods to consider adding to your diet to improve your memory include:¹¹

• Fruits like blueberries and other berries, which are high in antioxidants and flavonoids¹²
• Vegetables like onions, which contain lots of antioxidants and flavonoids; and dark leafy greens like spinach that contain lots of antioxidants
• Chocolate that contains at least 70% cacao has lots of phytochemicals to help with circulation
• Proteins like fish, eggs, beef, poultry and lamb help provide fuel for your body and brain
• Healthy fats from avocado, grass-fed butter and coconut, which also support the gut and immune system
• Mushrooms like reishi mushrooms, which are a good source of energy

10. Minimize Distractions

Outside distractions can negatively impact how your brain stores memories. Much like multitasking, distractions can adversely affect how the memory is stored and how it's retrieved when you need it.¹³

To help information move from your short-term memory to your long-term memory, you'll need to focus your full attention on it if you want to remember the information for later. This means reducing distractions like:

• Others speaking around you¹⁴
• Electronics
• Television
• Music

11. Practice Meditation and Mindfulness

Meditation and mindfulness aren't just good for keeping you calm, they have several health benefits, including:¹⁵

• Reducing pain in the body
• Lowering your blood pressure
• Improving your memory
• Helping you concentrate better
• Giving you better sleep quality
• Decreasing your stress levels
• Increasing your psychological well-being

Practicing meditation also helps increase plasticity of gray matter in your brain, helping improve your cognitive function and protect you against age-related cognitive decline.¹⁶ With regular meditation sessions, your memory will likely improve.

12. Learn a Language

Learning a new language not only helps you become a better communicator and expand your knowledge of other cultures, but it also provides a strengthening workout for your brain. That's because learning a new language can:¹⁷

• Increase the amount of gray matter in your brain
• Improve your short-term memory
• Increase your problem-solving skills
• Promote mental flexibility
• Slow dementia as you age

Overall, learning another language increases the amount of brain matter that controls memory recall and storage. This leads to better cognitive function due to an increase in neural pathways in the brain.¹⁷

For those looking to learn a new language, you can take classes in person or online at your local college, hire a private tutor or use a language-learning app.

13. Play an Instrument

Learning how to play an instrument, like learning a new language, helps increase your neural plasticity and creates new connections within your brain as you take in the new information. Musical learning is a whole-brain experience that improves your:¹⁸

• Memory
• Cognitive abilities
• Concentration and attention span
• Social confidence
• Mood

Whether you're learning to play the piano, flute, guitar or any other instrument you have an interest in, studies have shown that learning a new skill can help slow normal cognitive decline as you age. While the greatest improvements in memory occur in those who learn how to play an instrument earlier in life, learning how to play an instrument at any age can still help maintain and improve your memory.¹⁸

14. Stay Social

Being isolated isn't just bad for your mental health, it's bad for your brain health, too. That's because studies have shown that seniors who had pleasant socialization with friends and family had better cognitive function than those who didn't.¹⁹

To keep your cognitive function in good shape, make an effort to socialize with the people close to you frequently, even if that interaction takes place online through social media or through text messaging. You can also take classes to make new friends and learn a new skill, both of which can help improve your memory.

15. Make Use of Mnemonics

Mnemonics is a type of memory tool that you can use to learn new information or keep track of a lot of information at once, especially long lists of things or names of places. This type of tool makes use of common phrases or acronyms to help you remember information. For instance, to remember the Great Lakes — Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie and Superior — you can create an acronym from the first letters of each lake, such as HOMES.²⁰

There are five types of mnemonics you can use to remember things more easily and improve your memory, including:²⁰

• Acronyms or acrostics, which use common words or phrases to refer to information
• Association, in which you mentally reference something new with something you already know, such as associating the name of a new coworker with a relative you have of the same name
• Chunking information, in which you remember smaller parts of a whole, such as breaking up a large number into three parts
• Creating a memory "palace," in which you imagine a list of items or information in various rooms in your home to remember them for later
• Catchy tunes and rhymes act as a way to better remember information, such as singing the alphabet. They can also help when learning a new language and improve your cognitive function.

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Author Bio

Susan Paretts is a freelance writer with 19 years of experience covering health and wellness, pet care and more. Her work has been published by the American Kennel Club, Bayer Animal Health, Elanco, LIVESTRONG.com, The San Francisco Chronicle, Chewy and more.