Quick Memory Tips - 5 Powerful Strategies

Want to remember things better starting today? The tips on this page are practical techniques backed by memory research that you can put into action immediately.

There are plenty of other steps you can take to improve your memory even more, which I discuss in detail throughout this site. A great place to start is my Get a Better Memory page.

But for now, here are 5 powerful strategies you can use right now to remember better: 1) Increase your attention and concentration; 2) Use all of your senses; 3) Recite and test yourself; 4) Space out your learning; and 5) Stay confident and calm.

After reading these tips, you might also want to check out my quick guide to how memory works.

1. Increase Your Attention and Concentration

Your "attention" is how tightly you focus on new information. I can tell you right now that if you are not focusing intently - if your mind is wandering or you are distracted - you are not going to remember well. What you want to do is increase your brain's power of concentration and be able to switch it on whenever you need to.

Memory expert Harry Lorayne calls this "Original Awareness." Without truly paying attention to information in the first place, a memory simply cannot form. So before anything else, you need to be present and focused.

Below are some quick fixes for increasing your concentration right now.

Chew gum. According to research, the act of chewing gum increases the flow of blood to your brain. Studies have shown that people chewing gum are able to concentrate more intently and remember new information better. Chew the sugar-free type to avoid a blood sugar spike.
Breathe from your belly. Many people are shallow breathers and don't know it. Take several deep, slow breaths from your belly. Stomach breathing activates the brain's Theta waves, which research shows improves memory. Deep breathing also increases the oxygen flow to your brain cells, which helps "wake them up."
Close your eyes. When you want to recall something, go somewhere quiet and shut your eyes. According to research, closing your eyes boosts memory. When your eyes are closed, visual distractions are blocked out and more brain resources become available for remembering.
Get moving. Physical movement increases blood flow to your brain. Go where no one can see you and do 10 sets of arm circles, some jumping jacks, or take a brisk walk. Research consistently shows that exercise, even brief bouts of it, enhances cognitive function and memory. A study from 2022 found that aerobic exercise leads to enhanced memory performance through neuroplastic changes in the brain.
Play a brain game. Puzzles and brain teasers force your mind to get into concentration mode. You can play brain games on paper or with friends, and you can also play them online. Check out my page of free memory games to warm up your mind.
Eat a brain-friendly meal. A meal heavy on carbs and sugar will kill your concentration because of the way it spikes (and then crashes) your blood sugar. Similarly, skipping meals tends to make you light-headed. Instead, eat a small, balanced meal. Include foods that help the brain operate well, such as fish, vegetables, nuts, and olive oil. Research on the Mediterranean diet shows modest benefits for memory and cognitive function.
Squeeze your right fist, then your left fist. One study found that squeezing your fists in a particular order during memory tasks can improve recall.

Participants were asked to memorize a list of 72 words. The group that remembered the best squeezed their right fist for 90 seconds before starting to memorize the list. Later they squeezed their left fist before trying to recall as many words from the list as they could.

Researchers guessed that squeezing the fists in that order changes the brain temporarily in a way that boosts memory. It sounds weird, but it might work for you.

Drink water. Don't reach for sodas, energy drinks, or that candy bar. These will not improve your concentration - they will just cause you to crash. Instead, get a large glass or bottle of water and drink it down.

Many people are dehydrated all the time and don't realize it. Your brain is very sensitive to this. Drink that water, and you'll almost certainly feel more alert.
Use "time boxes." When you need to study new information, sit down in a quiet spot and set a timer. Give yourself only a set amount of time to read and review the material (for example, 30 minutes for a magazine article).

Break it down further - say 10 minutes to read an article, then 20 minutes to review and recite the information. This approach, similar to the Pomodoro Technique, forces you to focus because you know your time is limited.
Get into nature. If you can, step outside into a natural setting. A 2024 study found that a walk in nature allowed the brain to rest and relax more than a walk in an urban setting. Even exposure to plants indoors could boost working memory performance, according to a 2023 study. Nature seems to give our brains a restorative break that improves cognitive function.

2. Use All of Your Senses

Are you concentrating now? Good. Here are quick ways to actually encode the information better. Realize that different parts of your brain remember different sense impressions.

For example, images are stored in one brain area, sounds in another, tactile (touch) sensations in another. What you want to do is plug new information into your brain using as many different senses as possible.

The idea is that you can build multiple memory pathways to the information. For example, if you fail to remember the material through sight, then your audio pathway may allow you to access it. The more sensory pathways you engage, the more likely you will later be able to jog your memory and recall the information.

Do all of these steps (or as many as possible) with any new material you want to remember:

See it. This one is obvious but not always easy. When you are reading, you should be seeing the information in your mind. Sometimes when reading too quickly or while distracted, we may think we've read something, but we may not have achieved Original Awareness of the material. Without this, a memory cannot form.

For non-written material or physical items, use your ability to concentrate to really see the item. Look carefully and slowly at the shape, color, texture of the object, the material it's made of.
Say it. Read new material out loud. Find a secluded place, perhaps at home, so you don't distract others. Repeating the information verbally out loud, which was Abraham Lincoln's favorite memory technique, forms memory pathways not only through the visual sense (you see the words on the paper), but also through hearing the words. You now have two ways to recall the information.
Write it by hand. Summarize critical concepts in writing - and use pen and paper, not a keyboard. Research shows that writing by hand is more effective than typing for learning concepts. As it takes longer to write by hand, you are naturally forced to be more selective with what you write and focus only on the key information. The physical act of writing also stimulates specific pathways in the brain.
Explain it in writing. Want to prove to yourself that you truly understand and remember a concept? Explain it in writing as clearly as you can, with as much detail as possible from memory. As you write, pretend you are teaching it to someone else.

The best way to develop a familiarity and understanding of any body of ideas is to explain the material in writing, as if you are explaining it to someone else. - Dr. Keith Seddon
Do it. If it's a procedure you need to remember, do it. Do it several times. The act of "doing" is a separate mental pathway that you create. Just reading about something (or just hearing someone else explain how to do it) is not good enough.
Draw it. Can the information be associated with one or more images? Draw them, even if you are not an artist. Just the act of sketching on paper, especially bizarre or silly images, will engage your visual and creative memory - giving you yet another path for remembering the material.
Imagine it. Visualize the material you want to remember.

Studying chemistry or atomic theory? Try to see in your mind's eye the electrons spinning around the atomic nuclei. Try to visualize the molecules you are studying.

Learning history? Try to imagine what the battle must have been like - the location, the combatants, what they were wearing, their weapons. Make it real to you. Bring it out of the abstract.
Research it. Pull even more brain pathways into the situation. Go on the Internet and research examples. Find more detail than your book, your instructor, or that article explained. The more interconnections you can make in your brain by linking information together, the better you will remember.
Emotionalize it. Find some way to become "connected" with the material. Look for ways to relate emotionally. Anything emotional will be a lot easier to remember. It can make you sad or happy or excited or intrigued. It doesn't matter, but you must find some way to care about the material.
Convert it. Trying to memorize dry facts, like dates, numbers, formulas? Find patterns in the information and convert these to something meaningful. For example, try to create rhymes, try to match up the details with facts you already know. Patterns can even be found in the shapes of numbers and formulas if you study them closely. When you have time, read the memory systems pages on this site to learn ways of making this technique even more effective.
Question it. Don't be passive and take everything dished out to you. Question the validity of new material. Ask yourself how this or that fact is known, what is the evidence? Is it believable? What does it imply, and how does it relate to what you already know?

By questioning material you make it your own and you make it much more memorable. When reading a chapter in a book, scan the headings and turn each into a question. Then when you read the chapter, look for the answers.
Chunk it. When facing a large amount of information, break it into smaller, manageable pieces. For example, phone numbers are easier to remember as three chunks (555-867-5309) than as a long string of digits. Group related concepts together. This technique, called "chunking," aligns with how your working memory naturally processes information.

3. Recite and Test Yourself

Recite, recite, recite. To recite means repeating within a few minutes and hours what you have just learned. Studies show that most forgetting occurs within just a few minutes after learning. If you recite the information, instead of forgetting it you will be more likely to save it in long-term memory.

But here's the key: don't just passively reread the material. Test yourself from memory, say it out loud from memory, or write it down from memory. This is called "active recall," and research consistently shows it is far more effective than simply reviewing material.

Here are some tools that work well for reciting and testing:

Use flash cards. As you study, write key facts on index cards. On the front, write the name of the concept, then on the back, write the details. During and after each study session, flip through your stacks of cards and test your knowledge.

There is a page on this site where you can download CueCard, free flash card software. You can use this software to create flash cards on your computer, which you can print out if you want or use on-screen. I've also created free sets of printable math flash cards you can print out to memorize basic addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division math facts.
Repeat in your head. When listening to a lecture, a podcast, or other source of audible information, repeat the information mentally as you hear it. After each sentence spoken by the instructor, for example, say the sentence back to yourself in your head. This doubles the number of times you hear new information, plus it makes you an active participant.
Rephrase and reuse. Shortly after learning anything new, reuse it in your own way using your own words. For example, when you meet someone new, use their name in the conversation one or two times to help you remember it. When learning a new concept, immediately try to explain it in your own words.
Quiz yourself. Every time you learn something new, give yourself a quick quiz within a few minutes. Every few minutes, pause and force yourself to say back what you've just studied or heard. If you can't remember much, that means you need to go back and read or study it more closely. You are wasting your time if you are not actually learning the information as you go along.
Teach it. If you can teach it so that someone else understands, that means you know it. If possible, teach someone else the details of what you've learned, soon after you learn it. In a school situation, this means joining a study group and volunteering often to be the "explainer." Or, become a tutor.

For more ideas on reciting and remembering, see my Best Study Skills page.

4. Space Out Your Learning

One of the most powerful and well-researched memory techniques is spaced repetition. Instead of cramming all your studying into one marathon session, spread your learning out over time with increasing intervals between review sessions.

German psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus discovered the "forgetting curve" back in the 1880s. His research showed that we forget information at a remarkable rate unless we actively review it. But here's the good news: if you review information at strategic intervals, the rate of forgetting slows dramatically, and the memory becomes more durable.

A 2025 study using brain imaging confirmed that spaced learning increases the similarity of brain representations across learning sessions, which predicts better memory retention. The benefits have been demonstrated across many types of learning, from facts and vocabulary to math principles and motor skills.

Here's how to put spaced repetition into practice:

Review soon after learning. Go over new material within the first hour or so after you learn it. This is when forgetting happens fastest, so a quick review at this point has an outsized impact.
Then space out your reviews. After your initial review, wait a day before reviewing again. Then wait two or three days. Then a week. Then two weeks. Each time you successfully recall the information, you can wait longer before the next review.
Use spaced repetition apps. Software like Anki, Quizlet, or similar apps can automate the scheduling of your reviews. They track what you know and what you're struggling with, and they present material at optimal intervals for retention.
Don't cram. Research consistently shows that cramming produces short-term recall but poor long-term retention. If you have a week to study for a test, you'll remember more by studying a little each day than by pulling an all-nighter the day before.

The spacing effect is one of the most robust findings in memory research. It takes discipline to spread out your studying rather than cramming, but the payoff in long-term retention is substantial.

5. Be Confident

If you're not careful, you can be your own worst enemy when it comes to remembering things. The power of positive thinking is real - and so is the power of negative thinking. If you tell yourself you have a bad memory, eventually you will start to believe it. And that belief can become self-fulfilling.

The next time you catch yourself thinking negatively about your memory, just stop. Instead, actively shift your internal dialogue in a more positive direction. Tell yourself, "I can remember this material. I'm using good techniques. I can do this!"

Research also shows that stress and anxiety can interfere with memory formation and retrieval. When you're anxious about remembering something, that anxiety itself can block your recall. Confidence and a calm state of mind help create the conditions where memory works best.

Bonus Tips for Better Memory

The ideas above are things you can start doing right now to improve your memory. Here are a few more quick tips supported by research:

Get enough sleep. Sleep plays a critical role in memory consolidation. During sleep, your brain processes and strengthens the memories you formed during the day. Cutting sleep short interferes with this process. Most adults need 7-9 hours per night.
Try meditation or mindfulness. Research from 2019 suggests that meditation helps improve several cognitive functions, including focus, concentration, memory, and learning. Even a few minutes of mindful breathing can help clear your mind and improve your ability to learn.
Stay socially engaged. Studies suggest that maintaining close connections with friends and family helps preserve cognitive abilities. Social interaction exercises the brain and may help protect memory as we age.
Learn something new. A 2023 study found that older adults learning multiple new real-world skills showed significant improvement in cognitive ability, including memory. Challenging your brain with new learning keeps it sharp.

To take memory improvement even further, explore the other areas of this site. The How to Get a Better Memory page is a good place to start.