The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Quick and simple steps to improve your memory

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Nov 16, 2005

Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Quick and simple steps to improve your memory

Special Correspondent

An average person uses less than five per cent of his brain's capacity

Bangalore: A good memory makes good business sense. If you can remember that your best customer has a hobby of breeding tropical fish and ask about the latest addition to his collection, you have almost clinched that major order.

"Neurologists and psychologists have found that an average person uses less than five per cent of the brain's capacity in a lifetime ... this means we can train ourselves to store more in our memory than the average personal computer," says M.K. Rao, a former human resources head with a corporate and now a consultant.

A negative attitude of "I have a very poor memory for names or telephone numbers or dates" is usually what induces one to not remember, he says. A more positive attitude and a few simple memory tricks can help you remember even that best customer's wedding anniversary date.

Psychotherapist Sunanda Rao explains: "Learn how your brain works, and make it practise what you want. This way you can make use of the brain's enormous potential. While men and women have a knack for remembering different things, both genders are endowed with enough memory to last till a fairly advanced age."

Motivation

If you can motivate yourself to improving your brain's capacity to remember, something akin to adding to the memory storage on your computer, you will also be equipped to deal with information more quickly and more effectively.

"You can save time if you can, say, remember important phone numbers without having to use your mobile's phone book, and you will be acquiring new skills to boost your career prospects," says Mr. Rao. Not many employees other than the big boss's personal secretary may remember his birthday. If you can, you are way ahead in that race for a promotion.

Children are naturally both more imaginative and remember things quickly; sometimes things adults do not consider worth remembering. They ask more questions and are more enthusiastic about knowing new facts than are most adults are. Some of these traits can be usefully cultivated by adults who want to improve their memory.

One of the tricks suggested is to draw up an imaginary shopping list of about 10 grocery items. Give yourself five minutes to visualise the items on the list and link them to names. For example, think soap and you visualise the wrapper of the soap you normally use.

Do this for the entire list and then tear it up. By the end of the day, try to remember as many items on the list as possible. With constant practise, you will eventually be able to remember all the items.

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