How to Remember What You Don't Want to Forget

How many times have you heard a funny joke and swore you would remember it, and then the occasion for you to tell a joke presents itself and you can't recall the punch line? Or maybe one morning before work you drink the last of the coffee and tell yourself you'll stop by the grocery on the way home to pick up more, and then it isn't until the next morning when you go to make the coffee that you realize you forgot?

Do you blame examples like these on your memory going bad like an over-ripe banana? Well, you can ease up on yourself a little. Scientific research is showing us that it is not our memory that is faulty, but our ability to retrieve it.

So what can we do? In order to have access to your memories, you must practice retrieving them. Any time you make new memories that you want to be sure to remember, practice these five memory exercises. You can try one or you can try them all and have some fun with it!

1. Make a Mental Note – If you need to remember to take the garbage to the curb on your way out to work in the morning, tell yourself you are going to do it as you follow your morning routine. Talk to yourself out loud if you must.
2. Use Your 5 Senses – The more senses you involve during your memory storage process, the more apt you are to remember. Maybe you are trying to remember someone’s name (most people admit to having trouble remembering people’s names). Is the person wearing cologne, perfume (or even fabric softener)? Do they look like someone you went to high school with or someone famous? Who do they sound like when they talk (or what? I knew someone who sounded like a bullfrog).   
3. Try a mnemonic device – Have you ever misplaced your car keys? C.A.R. in my house is Cabinet Above Refrigerator where I keep a spare set just in case.
4. Create a rhyme or song – How come you can remember the words to a song you haven’t heard in 20 years, but you can’t remember what you had for lunch yesterday? Rhymes, especially when set to music are some of the very best ways to remember. If you have something very important you don’t want to forget, find a way to make it rhyme and set it to one of your favorite melodies and sing it over and over.
5. Lastly, you want to repeat, repeat, repeat - This really applies to all five memory exercises. Repetition and retrieval of your important memories is crucial if you want to continue remembering them and enjoying them.