[snowflakes]

10. DRINK IN MODERATION

Too much drinking handicaps the memory, as anyone who's ever woken after a binge with a fuzzy recollection of the night before can attest. And one component of a DUI test shows how overconsumption of alcohol can immediately affect the brain: Even simple mental tasks like counting backward and reciting the alphabet can become tricky under the influence. Alcohol abuse will have a negative effect on the cells of the brain related to memory.


9. SEEK TREATMENT FOR DEPRESSION

Anything that causes major stress in life, including anxiety or anger, will eventually eat away at the parts of the brain that are responsible for memory. Chief among these stressors is major depression. Depression is often misidentified as a memory problem since one of the main symptoms of the condition is an inability to concentrate. If you can't concentrate on schoolwork or the information needed to complete a task on the job, then you may feel as if you're constantly forgetting things.


8. GET MOVING

Exercise not only exercises the body, it exercises the brain as well.


7. VISUALIZATION AND ASSOCIATION

A picture's worth a thousand words, as the saying goes, so turning a list of random words into images may help you remember the words better.


6. PAY ATTENTION

Try to stay in the present and really pay attention to the task at hand, whether it's learning new information for a job or meeting new people. Minimize distractions such as music, television or cell phones to focus fulLY.
Eight seconds is more than just a length of time that bull riders try to stay atop a bucking bronco, it's the amount of time you need to completely focus your attention upon something to effectively transfer it from short- to long-term memory [source: Crook]­. No matter how wonderfully you can conjure up entertaining and useful visualizations for incoming information, the skill will be useless if you're not paying attention to what you need to remember in the first place.


5. THE NAME GAME

4. CHUNKING

Breaking information into smaller chunks makes it easier to manage.


3. METHOD OF LOCI

let's say that you've selected places you pass daily on your commute to the office. You drive by a large yellow house, a fast food chicken restaurant and a tire shop. You need to remember to stop by the store to get detergent, bread and orange juice. For each familiar place, visualize an association with an item on the list. You could envision the detergent dripping down the sides of the yellow house, making the yellow even brighter. You picture the chickens eating pieces of bread thrown to them in their chicken coops, and you could imagine tires trying to move through a rising river of orange juice. You can expand the list with more landmarks as needed, and then when you arrive at the store, you just pull up this route information and think of your visualizations.

2. USE YOUR ENVIRONMENT

Tying a string around your finger to remember something has become a bit of punchline, but the reasoning for it makes sense. By putting something in your environment slightly askew, you create a visual reminder for yourself. The key, as with other methods, is to take the time to create a strong visualization for why there's a string around your finger before you mindlessly tie it on.

1. PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT


source: http://health.howstuffworks.com/10-w...ove-memory.htm

[silver_moon]

v.interesting snowflakes thank you