Memory Management - Ways to improve your memory (including the time factor)

Before showing each memory improvement method, I will provide an example for you to remember. Take this list for example: Read through the list (once), pausing at each item as necessary and after the last item, recall as many as possible without viewing the list.

blue

clown

windmill

ladder

belt

sound

Christmas

essay

disc

square

How many did you get? Most people remember the first couple (because they focus on those words) and the last two (because they are still in short-term memory). Unfortunately, remembering 4 words out of 10 wouldn't be regarded as a passing mark. Some people may remember the first and last 3, or maybe a couple from the middle, but it still means that you are missing something.

Suppose you are picking up ingredients for dinner tonight without a list and you only remember half or even 8 of the 10 ingredients. Obviously, each extra ingredient you remember will provide you with more chance of making the dinner or at least having some ingredients to make something else if necessary.

65 - Perfect Recall

in the fall

English: The Atlantic Ocean.

Now, go through the list again - pausing at each item as necessary and then see how many you remember. Is it more than last time? It should be. In fact, if you read through the list over and over you'd probably memorize the order of the list as well which gets me to memory trick #1

Trick #1: Repetition

Spend some time going through various lists, spending varying amounts of times for each different list and see how long it takes you to remember. Staring at a word for 5 minutes isn't effective if you can remember it by looking at it for just 2 minutes. Likewise, glancing at each word for 2 seconds might require you to read the whole list again which slows...