Some of my best ideas come to me when I’m exercising.
At least I think they’re some of my best ideas; by the time I actually get a chance to write them down, I’ve often forgotten them. While you could argue that something I was unable to remember for an hour or so can’t be that great, still: we’ve all had things we wanted to remember, but couldn’t.
So what can you do if you need to remember something important? Most memory-improvement techniques—like mnemonics, chunking, and building memory palaces—involve a fair amount of effort.
But these simple strategies to improve your short-term memory and recall require almost no effort—and very little time.
1. Say it out loud
We’ve all been around people who repeat things they’re learning out loud. Or just mouth the words. They look a little odd: smart people just file knowledge away. They don’t have to talk to themselves.
Actually, smart people do talk to themselves.
A study published Learning, Memory, and Cognition found that saying words out loud—or just mouthing them—makes them more distinctive by separating them from all the other words you’re thinking. In short, saying words out loud makes them different.
Which makes them more memorable.
So go ahead. When you need to remember something, say it aloud. Or mouth it to yourself.
Your cerebral cortex will thank you for it.
2. Predict whether you will actually remember
Sounds odd, I know. But a study published in the Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology shows the simple act of asking yourself whether you will remember something significantly improves the odds that you will remember, in some cases by as much as 50%.
That’s especially true for remembering things you want to do. Psychologists call them prospective memories: remembering to perform a planned action, or recall a planned intention, at some point in the future. Like remembering to praise an employee, email a customer, or implement a schedule change.
Why this works is somewhat unclear. Maybe the act of predicting is a little like testing yourself; research shows that quizzing yourself is an extremely effective way to speed up the learning process. What is clear is that the act helps your hippocampus better form and index those episodic memories for later access.
So if you want to remember to do something in the future, take a second and predict whether you will remember.
Science says that act alone makes it more likely you will.
3. Rehearse for 40 seconds
Memory consolidation is the process of transforming temporary memories into more stable, long-lasting memories. Even though the process of memory consolidation can be sped up, still: Storing a memory in a lasting way takes time.
One way to increase the odds is to rehearse whatever you want to remember for 40 seconds. A study published in The Journal of Neuroscience found that a brief period of rehearsal—like replaying an event in your mind, going over what someone said in a meeting, or mentally mapping out a series of steps—makes it significantly more likely that you will remember what you rehearsed.
As the researchers write, that “brief period of rehearsal has a huge effect on our ability to remember complex, lifelike events over periods of one to two weeks. We have also linked this rehearsal effect to processing in a particular part of the brain: the posterior cingulate.”
Which should be long enough for you to actually do something with whatever you hope to remember.
4. Close your eyes for 2 minutes
A study published in Nature Reviews Psychology found that “. . . even two minutes of rest with your eyes closed can improve memory, perhaps to the same degree as a full night of sleep.”
Psychologists call it “offline waking rest.” In its purest form, offline waking rest can be closing your eyes and zoning out for a couple of minutes. But offline waking rest can also be daydreaming. Mind-wandering. Meditating. Basically turning your mind off for a minute or two.
While mentally disconnecting doesn’t sound productive, when it comes to remembering more, it is: without those intermittent periods of lack of focus, memory consolidation doesn’t occur nearly as efficiently.
So go ahead and zone out for a couple minutes. As the researchers write, “Moments of unoccupied rest should be recognized as a critical contributor to human waking cognitive functions rather than a waste of time.”
Can’t beat that.