In my own pursuit to improve my memory I quite quickly came to the realisation that in order to fully appreciate and apply the many techniques that I was learning in how to improve my memory; it was important that I first understand how our memory works.

A very simplified summary follows:

The first step your brain takes in compiling your memories is to first Acquire information. This is from everything that your senses tell your brain. Everything that you see, feel, hear, taste and smell. It also takes in what you are feeling, your emotions and your perceptions about what you're senses sense.

Next your brain needs to organise and Consolidate this information into some kind of order or catagoies so that at a later time you are able to Recall the information, which is the 3 step in memory.

It is this Recall of information that is the most difficult for most people.

Understanding how your memory works is the first step in knowing your memory, how it works and how to improve it. And in the study of memory you will find that it's not in the 'recall' of data that the brain has stored that most of us fail (though many believe that it is). It is actually in the Consolidation stage that our brain's 'fail' us most.

If you were to think of all the information that your brain acquires as a very large library and each part of your memories as a specific line, in a specific paragraph of a specific book in the library; the the consolidation process is where all that information is categorised and put away on the correct position so that you can recall it easily. It's a loose analogy but it helps us to understand why it's important for our brain's to consolidate the information correctly.