Different types of memory cues

Reminders give us mental space for more important work. They make sense because we can't remember everything.

They keep our most important priorities top of mind. And studies show how reminders can help us save more money, keep up with medical treatments, and be more charitable.

• We’re bombarded by reminders and notifications every day and this can mess up our focus.
• Reminders cause context switching and distraction. They take our focus away from what we're doing.
• Good reminders lose their influence quickly. The sheer number of them means we’re more likely to miss the ones we do want to pay attention to.

Whenever you see or hear a complex word, try to recall as many rhyming words as possible.

This will help you in the long run by allowing you to recall things faster.

Whenever you discover a new word, try to play around with it. Recall the synonyms associated with it, recall any possible verbs or adverbs, or maybe even try to recall similar sounding words.

It can go a long way in boosting your memory.

We’re no longer weighed down by having to retain trivial data, since all the information we need is one click away, and so we are left with greater cognitive space and with a hard time processing the information we take in to form memories.

• explicit, created through conscious experience;
• implicit, which form when past experiences affect us, sometimes without our knowledge.

• Get a good night's sleep or take a power nap after learning something new, to help retain and retrieve memories better. Sleep deprivation and acquisition of too much information will not help you save those memories.
• Get moving, to improve the flow of oxygen-rich blood in your brain and to trigger neuron growth and new connections in the brain - critical for memory.
• Improve your diet. Fats from food can build up the brain, resulting to poor blood flow.

Any system or device designed to aid memory:

• patterns of letters or words (common mnemonics)
• ideas (memory palace)
• associations (chunking)

• Meditate to improve working memory. Take a pause to empty your mind and to reduce stress.
• Although still debatable, drink coffee to help improve memory consolidation.
• Eat berries for better long-term memory. Berries contain flavanoids,  which appear to strengthen connections in the brain.
• Exercise not only to improve memory recall, but also to enhance cognitive abilities.
• Chew gum to make stronger memories. It is proven that it increases activity in the hippocampus. It also increases heart rate which causes more blood to flow in the brain.
• Sleep more to consolidate and easily remember memories.

Scientists believe that it is impossible to recall the first few years of life. Many of the necessary brain structures for memory have not yet matured at the time. It means that it is physiologically impossible for your brain to remember personal events from infancy.

Any recollections are patched together from other knowledge we acquired later on.

Research has shown that we often underestimate the amount of time that has passed from long ago, and overestimate the amount of time that has passed since more recent events.

The more information that is available to us, the more we are unable to retain it. Memory means association and most information we consume may be simply buried inside, lurking deep in, and surfacing when the right cue pops up.

Binge-watching or binge-reading serves no useful purpose as we are only holding the content in our working memories. That's why schools space out the chapters and review them, helping us retain the material.

The art and culture we engage our brains in turn into memories which can be unpredictable and fickle.

The books we read, the songs we hear and the movies we watch become interwoven and entangled with everything else in our lives.

Narrow down what you want to do. You need to have a specific plan to work out exactly when and how you’re going to do that.

A behaviour is more likely to become habitual if it’s something you enjoy or find rewarding. 

We are more likely to create a habit when it connects to our sense of identity.

Some habits are representations of certain important goals or values. If you manage to link certain behaviours to your sense of identity, it might help to establish those habits.

By studying people with amnesia, it seems that short-term and long-term memories don't form in precisely the same way, nor do declarative and procedural memories.

• Emotional responses such as fear occur in a brain region called the amygdala.
• Memories of learned skills are associated with the region called the striatum.
• The hippocampus is essential for forming, retaining, and recalling declarative memories.
• The temporal lobes play a critical role in forming and recalling memories.

Memories are held within groups of neurons called cell assemblies. They fire as a group in response to a specific stimulus, such as recognising your friend's face.

The more neurons fire together, the more the interconnection of the cells strengthen. We experience the nerves' collective activity as a memory.