Finish the year with some memory tips?


Find the content from your study year already receding? Learn a few memory tools from neuroscientist Lisa Genova. Watch time 10 minutes. 


Big Think is a website/YouTube channel that I’ve started consuming a little more these days. I find they have interesting people featured who try to break down difficult concepts into everyday language. Not all, but some of their content is mental health/psychological health focused which obviously interests me.

At this time of the year, you might be busily trying to forget everything you learned in 2022, so a post on memory tips is probably badly timed. Regardless, in the interest of trying to share more of the content that I consume, I thought I’d share this 10-minute video of Lisa Genova (neuroscientist) explaining ways to enhance your memory.

As a bit of a heads-up for what she’ll cover:

  1. Pay attention – the better attention you pay to something you are doing, the more likely it will be remembered
  2. Lower stress levels – cortisol and adrenaline, in too high doses, or over long periods of time impair memory – build activities into your day that lower stress levels like yoga, meditation, exercise, slow breathing
  3. Focus on getting good sleep – sleep is when our brains consolidate the lessons from the day, so engage in good sleep hygiene to improve your slumber
  4. Use caffeine sensibly – in the right doses at the right times, caffeine will increase attention hence improve memory
  5. Create associations – new memories stick better if attached to existing ones, so look for ways to connect new information you are learning to stuff you already know
  6. Repetition, repetition, repetition
  7. Write stuff down – it isn’t cheating to use lists to enhance your memory – the process of writing helps you focus on the thing you are trying to remember
  8. Test yourself – memory isn’t just putting stuff IN our heads, it is getting it OUT of our heads – practice recalling important content on a regular basis (this is a central study technique)
  9. Use Google – especially when the answer is on the tip of your tongue but you can’t quite nab it – support retrieval of information with Google and then utilise techniques above to store that memory more effectively

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