Improving Short-Term Memory:

Short-term memory is the part of your brain, which holds the information in your mind for a very short duration of time. It's made for storing data that you don't have to recall at a later date like maybe the cost of some product in the supermarket etc. The amount of time for which one can hold onto the data in his short-term memory depends upon the attentiveness of that person. To keep from forgetting such data we repeat it over and over to leave an imprint onto our mind. Such repetition helps to ensure that we do not forget the data and also helps to store it in our long-term memory. At what time the eyes see and the hears hear the short-term memory starts to work, and in each word said of picture captured with the eyes a part will store in the short-term memory. It's not possible for most people to recall from the short-term memory, unless they practice strategies to deliver the information to the long-term memory.

Let us take an example of remembering a phone number. Imagine the phone no. to be 4372819. This is an average 7-digit phone number. Try remembering this number by individual numbers i.e. 4-3-7-2-8-1-9. Try recalling this number again after 5 minutes. You will hardly be able to recall this no. in another 30 seconds. Now try remembering the number as 43-72-81-9. This way we have broken up the larger number into four chunks of two digits each (except for 9). Now try recalling this number after 5 minutes. You will be surprised that you still remember the number. This is the same number and you are the same person with the same brain. Yet you get two different results. Isn't it amazing?

How to improve your short-term memory:

The key to improving your short-term memory is practicing all the time. The more you practice the longer you can keep it active and alive. Try to remember phone numbers, pin codes, and roll numbers or any other numerical data in the same fashion as discussed above.

The most common use of short-term memory is shopping lists. How to remember what all that you wrote down and what you want to buy from the market. As far as improving your short-term memory for words of concern, the following is a foolproof way. Just imagine that you have to buy ten items- hair dye, chocolate syrup, jam, milk, coke, hair gel, shoe polish, shampoo, deodorant. Try to read this list twice over and try to remember after 5 minutes the list. Probably you'll be able to recall five out of them.

How to remember each item on the list well the solution lies in weaving a story around each item on the list. For instance, visualize yourself as dying your hair with chocolate syrup. Then you wash it with milk. Then you put jam in your head instead of hair gel. Now to clean it all you shampoo your hair. Now you get so frustrated that you polish your shoes, spray some deodorant, and leave for work. Weaving such stories will help you to keep in mind what all you need in terms of associations and not as scattered data.

Thus, we can see that short-term memory helps you to do your daily chores more effectively and efficiently. It serves as a kind of temporary scratch pad. You just need to remember a phone number until you have called him up. You just need to remember the exact change that must be tendered to you only until you don't leave the cash counter. Your temporary memory helps you remember this. Next, learn how to sharpen your short-term memory by seeing how it works.

Happy Memory!

Our brain is a vital organ to our visual processing, auditory processing, motor control, sensation and learning. Since our brain is the powerhouse of all that we see, do, think and feel, it is imperative to properly feed and nurture it. For instance, our brain is like a computer. The hard drive contains all the vital information we need to function, if we don’t feed it correctly, then our bodies will shut down, such as a computer will shutdown if the hard drive is not working.

Additionally, if the hard disk crashes it is very difficult to recover that information, and in most cases it cannot be recovered. If we don’t properly feed our brains and bodies with good food, exercise as well as reducing stress, then we can experience highs and lows which could be detrimental to a person’s health.

Your mind and body work together—if you nourish them both properly, then they can continue to work together. Such activities as jogging or puzzles can help to keep your body and mind sharp, along with the proper foods to sustain your energy.

When a person, regardless of age has the right mix of nutrition and exercise, this will help both their physical and mental well being. One of the ways in which to do this is by having a diet that is rich in Omega-3 fat, which is not only good for the heart, but also for the brain in helping the memory.

Eliminating meals or not getting enough sleep also affects both our brain and energy level. For instance, lack of food for the brain and body and lead to a foggy brain, attention problems, or just plain crankiness. If you’re not able to ingest a healthy diet on a regular basis, then it may be a good idea to supplement your diet with vitamins, such as zinc, folic acid or other essential nutrients for the brain. Of course, regular exercise helps the body to maintain a healthy appetite, which helps your overall health.

Incorporating too much sugar, fat, or carbohydrates will also affect your health as well as your mental alertness. Ensure that your cholesterol levels and blood pressure is within normal range. This keeps the blood flowing through the arteries—blockages could lead to a heart attack or a stroke. In essence, eat the right mix of brain foods and engage in daily exercise, together with plenty of rest and relaxation and your mind, body and spirit will certainly be more aligned and reward you for it.

People aged 20 to 50 often talk about the need for a ‘good’ memory
but what actually constitutes a ‘good’ memory? You could for
example remember the exact minute that the bus turned up on a
particular day or the exact time that you started eating your lunch
yesterday but are these memories really that helpful when you can’t
remember where you left your house keys last night?

Most people are happy to remember the important things in their
life and aren’t looking to develop a ’super’ memory or a
photographic mind. So the basic goal of most 20 to 50 year olds
must be to remember what they need to remember and if they forget
the rest then it’s no big loss.

So what do you need to remember?
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http://www.elementsofmemory.com
and get your copy of Elements of Memory!
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-    Important facts to do with your day to day life. For example you
need to remember your PIN number, your passwords to various
internet sites, your mobile phone number and so on. You don’t
however need to remember the phone number of local Chinese or the
closing time of the nearest supermarket as this information is
publicly available and easily found.
-    The important people in your life. You should try to remember
likes and dislikes, personal preferences, facts about their lives
that are interesting and other such stuff.
-    Information relating to your job. It doesn’t matter whether you
work in an office, on a building site or in a factory, there are
going to be things about your job that you need to remember for
everybody’s safety.

Obviously there are thousands of things that happen each day which
you can afford to forget - unless you want to develop your memory
abilities by training your brain to remember everything that
occurs. Some people have been known to do this and in isolated
cases their ’super’ memories have bought them success, wealth and
even fame. If this appeals to you then there are hundreds of
training programs available today which claim to be able to teach
you how to remember names and faces, number sequences and even the
value of pi to 1000 decimal places. You can also buy herbal
remedies that are thought to stimulate the brain and aid in the
memory process.

At some point though, human memory begins to diminish and this is a
fear that most people have today, regardless of their current age.
It isn’t unusual for people to sit there trying to remember
something that they knew weeks before, only to struggle with the
answer. The ‘tip of the tongue’ syndrome affects us all at some
point and shouldn’t be taken as a sign of impending memory loss.

So what does it mean to have a good memory?

As long as you can remember the things that are important to you
and the way you run your daily life then that’s all you need.
Everything else is a bonus that can be retained through brain
training and other memory improving methods. If you decide you want
to improve your memory for later in life then that is what you
should do however most people manage to get by quite adequately
with just the basics.
======================================
Right now, go to
http://www.elementsofmemory.com
and get your copy of Elements of Memory!
======================================