10 simple, enjoyable expert ways to boost your memory, from reading more to sleeping better

Relying on technology can make people more forgetful, but there are practical ways to sharpen recall. Memory specialists explain the habits and techniques that can help.

Memory may decline with age, but there are often steps people can take to improve it. Here, experts share their advice on strengthening recall.

Train your brain

“Memory is a buildable skill. You can train it, just like learning how to ride a bike or drive,” says Sania Alam, founder of Futuristic Learning, which offers memory-training education. Based in the US, Alam has coached memory athletes who have broken six Guinness World Records. She says modern life is not helping. “We are in an age where we are bombarded with information. At the same time, AI has come in, and social media is growing. All of these things are ageing our brains. You see people at a very young age who are beginning to have memory issues.” Her advice is to take a course that teaches memory techniques so you can rely on your own brain more and less on gadgets.

Learn something new

“The best way to improve your memory is to keep your brain active by learning new things and engaging in cognitively stimulating activities,” says Barbara Sahakian, professor of psychiatry at the University of Cambridge and co-author of Brain Boost: Healthy Habits for a Happier Life. She suggests finding something enjoyable that you have not tried before, such as chess, a new language or an instrument. Sahakian has long argued that new learning can help reduce the risk of dementia and Alzheimer’s. “Keeping our brains active through learning and remembering, we drive the neural circuits and keep them functioning better for longer,” she says.

You do not need a complex course to help your memory. Simply opening a book can also make a difference. “Reading something that interests you, whether it is fiction or nonfiction, has a positive effect on the brain, cognition and mood,” says Sahakian. “Several studies have shown that reading can reduce the risk of cognitive decline and dementia with ageing.”

Avoid distractions

Technology can also interfere with memory by making concentration harder. Sahakian says people are constantly shifting attention from one task to another. That makes it difficult to focus when a goal needs to be completed. Studies have shown that students do worse in tests when mobile phones are present in class, even if the phone is switched off and sitting nearby.

Take your brain on a journey

“We have to use these specific techniques. It’s not magic,” says Katie Kermode, a memory champion from Manchester who began competing in 2008 and has set world records, including for remembering names. One method she recommends is the journey technique, which she learned at age nine to remember the order of the planets. The idea is to turn each item into an object, person or event and link them into a story so they connect in sequence. Kermode says this approach can help with anything you want to memorise, though it takes effort.

A related method is the “memory palace”, which has roots in the work of the Ancient Greek poet Simonides of Ceos and was later popularised by the memory expert Tony Buzan. Kermode says she uses a memory palace when she needs a fixed sequence. In everyday life, it can mean placing items on a route you know well: for instance, putting the first item on your driveway, the next in your hallway, and mentally walking through the route to recall a shopping list. The same idea can help with speeches, with each topic assigned to a different location and sub-points placed within it.

Never miss a birthday

Kermode is good at remembering dates. She says she uses techniques in which each month has a meaning or colour and each day of the month has an object. But remembering to act on the date is a separate challenge. “I would say that is a different part of the brain.”

She also uses symbolism to make abstract ideas easier to picture. For example, an October birthday might become a pumpkin, because October is an abstract word but a pumpkin is concrete and visual. A number can be turned into an image too: “two looks like a swan,” she says, so “2 October could be a swan sitting on a pumpkin.” If visualisation is difficult, Kermode suggests turning the idea into more of a story and involving more people.

Exam cram

Dr Michael Gruneberg, a former senior lecturer in psychology at Swansea University and founder of Linkword Languages, recommends mnemonics, especially acronyms, for revision. He says that when he studied for exams, he would read the material first, then identify around eight likely points on a topic and use the first letter of each to form a word or sentence. A well-known example is “Richard of York gave battle in vain” for the colours of the light spectrum.

Kermode also uses slide decks. For each subject, such as history or geography, she creates a separate set of slides, with each subtopic on its own slide. The background should reflect the subject and be detailed enough to imagine activity within it. She gives the example of GCSE biology and platelets: thinking of plates and a dinner table, she used an image of a table full of food, with clotted cream included as a reminder that platelets clot blood.

Flashcards can help, she says, but people often forget the earlier step of memorising the material itself. Flashcards are mainly for reviewing at intervals. In lessons or lectures, she writes the key facts and lays them out as a mind map, with the main topic in the centre and subtopics branching out from it.

Practice makes perfect

If you want information to stay in your memory, you need to keep revisiting it. Kermode says short-term lists may only need to be repeated once or twice, but long-term learning requires regular review because we naturally forget. She recommends spaced repetition, where practice happens at increasing intervals: a few times on the first day, again the next day, then a few days later, then weekly, and eventually monthly.

Take notes and set alarms

Gruneberg, who is 86, says appointment times should always be written down. “There is something called ‘prospective memory’ that does not improve, to say the least,” he says, referring to remembering to do things such as doctor appointments. Writing things down becomes more important with age.

Kermode says she uses alarms constantly. “We do become reliant on it. You can try to remember it, but also set the alarm just in case.” She adds that linking a task to something you already do can help trigger the memory at the right time.

Rest up

Sahakian says she aims for at least seven hours of sleep each night. “You consolidate in your memory what you have learned during the day when you sleep at night. Therefore, it is important to sleep well and not to stay up all night cramming for exams.”

Kermode agrees that sleep is crucial for efficient brain function, especially when trying to memorise something quickly. “If you’re tired, it’s not going to work.” She says competition can leave her exhausted, even to the point of forgetting a PIN at an ATM after one event because her brain was frazzled.

Alam says lack of sleep leads to brain fog and slower thinking. “Your mind isn’t working at its top speed, and that is because your body has a circadian rhythm that is designed around sleep. Sleep at the time you need to, so that you can stay sharp.” When learning something by heart, she also recommends regular naps so the brain can process information and store it where it needs to go.