Self Improvement with Job

Think of your brain as one of the most powerful muscles in your body, because in a sense it is.  It may be an organ however, without it, where would one be.  People spend tons of money yearly to workout in gyms, go to spas for relaxing massages, and do everything in their power to stay physically appearing young, however they fail to take the same care and consideration to the most powerful part of their body, their brain.  Without exercising your brain, you will lose its powerful functioning that was the reason behind your success to maintain the job that enabled you to hit the gyms, spas, and other forms of treatments to stay looking young.  That is your first tip in improving your memory, work the brain, or lose it.  

You can exercise your brain by stimulating it to new information, hobbies, and knowledge.  Other ways you can exercise your brain is by moving away from mindless television and picking up a book, playing board games, memory games, doing crossword puzzles and other types of puzzles that force you to think.  Break away from normal routines that become monotonous.  How many times have you felt your car could drive you home from work because you have never strayed from a beaten path?  It is the same way with your brain; if you do not give it new surroundings from time to time, it becomes stale or stagnant.  Do anything you can do to throw a little spice up into your brains life.  

That is just one tip that will help improve your memory, recall ability, and knowledge base.  Here are some other essential tips to help one improve their memory.

•    Pay close attention to details in print or when someone is speaking to you.  Many times we assume we know were the conversation is leading so we tone out parts if not the majority of it.  Learn to focus closer on conversations and details even if you do not think they are pertinent.  It takes eight seconds for your brain to process a piece of information.  Practicing focusing even with the most boring conversation will help you drastically in improve your memory and recall skills.  
•    Know your learning style and try to intake new information in that style.  It will help your brain process the information quicker and even help cut down on study time.  
•    Use as many styles of learning that are best suited for you.  Try to utilize as many senses in your learning styles as possible.  The more style utilized the more your brain will absorb as well as you are giving your brain an excellent workout.  
•    Associate new information to information you have already learned previously or have stored.  This will help immensely with recall.  
•    When taking in new complex material, learn to repeat it back aloud in your own words then write the information in your own words.  
•    Remember the days of spelling words and writing them repeatedly to memorize them.  It worked then and it will work still at the age of 30, 40, and 50 and up.  
•    Remind yourself frequently that you want to improve your memory.  This alone will help improve your memory up to 30% if done actively.

There are many concepts that people use for memory improvement.  There are many methods to choose from, but there is one that has been around since the test of time.  The Loci method is so ancient that orators of the Greek and Roman countries used it for memorizing speeches and lists that were lengthy. 

The word loci means location or place.  So to use the Loci method requires you to remember places or locations.  You would have to picture them in your head.  It could be anywhere and it doesn’t have to be somewhere that you are familiar with. 

The Loci method is one of the mnemonic systems that is used for memory improvement.  A mnemonic system is one that helps to improve the memory.  When using this method, you can look at a park, house, backyard, kitchen, or anything that will help you to remember. 

The Loci method works better when you have more than one thing that you need to implement for memory improvement.  You should familiarize yourself with that place or location that you need to remember.

So if you need to remember a house, you may look at grass that surrounds the house.  You may also look at the roof and if there is a gate, you can look at that also.  In order to implement memory improvement techniques with the house, you would think about the grass that needs to be maintained and the roof that should remain sturdy. 

Or, if you feel the grass needs to be cut, you will get the lawn mower and cut it.  You don’t want to have grass that is growing as tall as weeds.  If you want, you can look at a garbage can and connect that with the house. 

You want to know that the house is still there, so associating grass, the roof and the garbage can are ways that you can do that.  You know that they will always be there so you can’t miss their presence.  Plus, you know that you will have to take action on them at some point and time, so you have no choice but to keep them in the forefront of your mind.

Sometimes, using this mnemonic method can be strange, but as long as it effects memory improvement in a positive way, then you would definitely benefit from it.

Poor memory is not something for just the aged or matured adult, poor memory can affect anyone of any age.  There are many techniques that are available to help improve your memory, however not all are as easy as they like to make it claim to be.  Some require a lot of time, which in reality is partially the reason people tend to have poor memory, lack of time to pay adequate attention to things they need to store in their memory bank. 

Recall is a developed technique that happens within our brain functioning from an early age.  If honed on, it can be quite sharp.  If one is lackey daisy about their memory, as in saying, I will have to make a mental note of that and although their brain may have taken note, they have not sufficiently gave it enough information for recall later when needed; the old memory bank will fail when drawing upon that particular information at a later date.

One method in helping develop a great memory is using a technique called the Link Method.  It helps you to recall stored information better due to the way you packed it away initially.  The Link method involves the use of mnemonics, an association between two things or items.  This gives the brain clues to later use in recall of that stored information.  This can be done in word association or by story association. 

Say you are studying for a test, any class, and you have to be able to recall all the bones in the foot.  First, you would write out a list of all the bones in the foot.  After writing the list out which would look something like this:  5 metatarsals for each foot, 14 phalanges for each foot (3 phalanges for each toe per foot except the hallux, which only has 2), Talus, Calcaneus, Navicular, Cuboid, Internal cuneiform, Middle cuneiform, and the External cuneiform for a total of 26 bones per foot. 

Next, you would take the words and put them either in a story form or in a word association form, which ever is easier for you to recall.  In a word association it may be something like 5 metatarsals = 5 mega parcels = I am getting 5 mega parcels (metatarsals) tomorrow from 14 philanders = 14 phalanges.  You would continue in this fashion with word association until you have covered all the necessary words in the list. 

In story association, you tell a story using a combination of word association and a story theme.  It may go something like this:  Five little metatarsals took off on a walk when out of the blue 14 scary looking fanged phalanges jumped out of a bush.  Each had three fangs except the little one, Hallux, who only had two.  Again, you would carry on similar to this until you have used all the listed words.  This is what is known as the Link Method.

The Link Method can be a reliable way to recall things, though it depends on the person remembering the story or the word associations.  However, this method with a combination of other methods can drastically help you improve your memory.  If you are having recall problems, improve your memory by learning valuable memory techniques at Memory Improvement

Memory loss can be due to something as simple as not actively stimulating the brain to more serious medical conditions.  However, if medical reasons have been ruled out for your memory loss yet it is still causing active problems in your life you may want to look into ways of improving your memory skills. 

Memory loss can affect a person’s livelihood at their place of employment to performing relatively familiar tasks.  When memory loss gets to the point where you can no longer function at your norm in both home and work situations you should consult a physician.  Warning signs that you need to seek a medical professionals advice regarding memory loss are:
•    the inability recall how to perform normal daily tasks
•    problems in recalling language, words, or poor fluency in speech due to recall difficulties
•    poor or decreased judgment making due to lack of ability to clearly think things through
•    difficulties with abstract thinking
•    forgetting close friends and families names, faces, or connections 

Everyone forgets things from time to time or has moments of the sometimes too common statement “It’s right at the tip of my tongue” but still cannot recall just exactly what is hanging there.  When was the last time you went to the grocery store and had every intention on picking up more milk or another item yet totally forgot?  This is normal for the most part; however, there are techniques that can be used to lessen the frequency of such situations. 

As we age, we naturally begin to lose the quickness in what we once were able to retrieve things from our memory bank.  Not everyone ages the same and some may have better recall then others at the age of 40 and up.  Part of the reason some may have better recall is that they actively use and stimulate their brain at every given moment. 

Living a healthy life also will help you maintain your memory skills longer.  A proper diet, exercise and avoiding recreational or illegal drug use and alcohol as well as adequate sleep and water intake will prolong your active memory recall.  An active cardiovascular workout also can help improve memory recall up to 30% as well as keep you physically fit. 

Another great way of improving your memory skills is by just wanting to improve your memory.  By simply wanting to improve your memory, you can actually improve it up to 30%.  By just wanting to improve your memory skills, you are actively telling your brain in a sense to pay closer attention to what you are storing.  This is a pretty simple exercise, but alone will not withstand time.  You would have to tell your brain actively at every given moment you want to improve your memory skills. 

Actively using your memory is the best way to exercise your brain and improve your memory skills.  There are several techniques one can use to help improve their memory skills such as actively exercising your brain through reading a memory improvement book, playing memory games, doing crossword puzzles, working on organization skills, or simply subjecting your brain to new skills and information.  The saying, “use it or lose it” works for every physical aspect of ones body.  If you don’t exercise the brain your will lose all it can do for you, just as if you don’t exercise that body you can quickly lose that young looking physique.

Our working memory is what we can recall from moments ago.  Say you are at a party and there are a bunch of new faces you do not recognize.  You introduce yourself to a few individuals and them to you and a few minutes later someone asks you if you know one particular individuals name and you draw a total blank.  You knew you just heard it moments ago, yet you cannot recall it for the life of you.  This is what is referred to as short-term memory loss, your working memory. 

One can improve their short-term memory or working memory by use of mnemonics.  Take the same scenario stated above regarding the short-term memory loss of a new name.  If the same person upon introducing their self to the new face would have repeated the name of the individual back to them at introduction and then placed an association with that name mentally, their memory recall would have improved drastically.  If the new persons name was April, the person with recall problems could have said “nice to meet you April” while mentally associating the name with April rain, April showers or another association that could be easy to recall. 

Association makes recall easier but not only that; the desire to use memory techniques immediately starts to aid in memory improvement.  Just the mere thought of consciously trying to associate the new name to another thing is registering in the brain as something of high importance; thus making recall simple.

Another great way to keep working memory sharp is by sharing the information just stored.  Taking the same scenario as stated before, had the person learning the new name immediately introduced a spouse or friend to April using April’s name in the introduction would increase the working memory recall improving ones memory overall.  Writing down new information can also be beneficial for some; however, it is not 100% effective for all.  If you are one of those people who jots down notes everywhere yet fails to recall where you jot them down at, this technique would not be beneficial to you. 

There are many other ways to help improve your memory, both long and short-term memory.  Mnemonics is just one way.  If you are having problems with your working memory or just want to sharpen your memory skills a great course to check out is at
how to improve your memory. It is crammed packed with various methods to help any learning style improve their memory.  Never get caught at a party or outing again at a loss for words because of a forgotten name or a poor working memory.