How to improve your memory: habits and techniques that work

Most people try to remember things by reading them again. It feels productive, but it is one of the weakest ways to learn. Memory research has a short list of techniques that work much better, and none of them need special talent. They need a slightly different routine.

Here are the ones with solid evidence behind them, and how to use them in normal life.

Why we forget so fast

In 1885, the German psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus memorized lists of nonsense syllables and tested himself at different delays. He found that most forgetting happens early: a large part of what you learn is gone within a day or two, then the loss slows down. This is the “forgetting curve”.

The good news is that the curve is not fixed. Each time you bring a memory back at the right moment, it fades more slowly afterwards. Most of the techniques below are ways to take advantage of that.

1. Test yourself instead of rereading

Retrieval practice means pulling information out of your memory rather than putting it in again. Close the book and write down what you remember. Answer questions. Explain the idea out loud to an imaginary friend.

In a 2006 study, Henry Roediger and Jeffrey Karpicke had students either reread a text or take recall tests on it. When the final test came five minutes later, rereading did slightly better. When it came two days or a week later, the students who had tested themselves remembered substantially more. The rereaders also felt more confident, which is the trap: rereading feels easy, so it feels like learning.

How to use it:

• After reading a chapter or an article, close it and write three to five key points from memory.
• Make simple flashcards: a question on one side, the answer on the other.
• Before a meeting, try to recall the main numbers before you look at your notes.

It should feel a little hard. That effort is the point.

2. Space it out

Studying the same thing in several short sessions spread over days works better than one long session. This is the spacing effect, and it is one of the most reliable findings in psychology. A 2006 review by Nicholas Cepeda and colleagues pulled together 317 experiments on the subject and confirmed it across many conditions. It also found that the best gap between sessions grows with how long you want to remember.

A practical rhythm for something you want to keep:

1. Learn it today.
2. Review it tomorrow.
3. Review it again a few days later.
4. Then a week or two after that.

Flashcard apps that use spaced repetition handle this schedule for you. A paper notebook with dates works too.

3. Chunk information

Your working memory, the mental space where you hold things for a few seconds, is small. Psychologist Nelson Cowan argued in 2001 that adults can hold about four meaningful units at once when they can’t group them.

The trick is to make each unit bigger. A phone number like 0612345678 is ten digits, but “06 12 34 56 78” is five chunks. Chess players remember board positions by recognizing familiar patterns, not individual pieces.

How to use it:

• Group numbers in pairs or threes.
• Turn lists into categories. Instead of 15 groceries, remember “five for breakfast, six for dinner, four for the bathroom”.
• Link new facts to something you already know well.

4. Use the method of loci for lists

The method of loci, or “memory palace”, is an old technique still used by memory champions. You picture a place you know well, such as your home, and mentally place each item you want to remember along a route through it. To recall the list, you walk the route in your head.

It is not only for competitors. In a 2017 study published in Neuron, Martin Dresler and colleagues trained ordinary people in the method for six weeks, in 30-minute sessions. Before training, they recalled roughly 26 to 30 words from a 72-word list. Afterwards, they recalled about 35 more words on average, and still more than 22 extra words four months later. The researchers were careful to note that this skill does not automatically make your memory better in other areas.

It works best for ordered lists: a speech outline, the steps of a procedure, a shopping list. Make the images vivid and a bit absurd. A carton of eggs balanced on your doorknob is easier to recall than “eggs”.

5. Protect your sleep

Sleep is when the brain consolidates what you learned during the day. Pulling an all-nighter before an exam trades the memories you would have kept for a few extra hours of shaky reading.

The American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the Sleep Research Society recommend that adults sleep seven hours or more per night on a regular basis. If you have something important to learn, review it in the evening and sleep on it, then test yourself the next morning.

6. Pay attention in the first place

Many “memory problems” are attention problems. If you were reading your messages while someone told you their name, the name was never stored. Before blaming your memory, check whether you were really there. Our guide on how to improve focus and concentration covers this side in more detail.

A simple habit: when you hear a name, repeat it once in the conversation (“Nice to meet you, Clara”). That second of attention makes a big difference.

Putting it together

You don’t need to use everything. A simple weekly routine is enough:

• Read or learn something, then close it and recall the key points.
• Review it the next day, then a few days later.
• Group what you can into chunks, and use a memory palace for ordered lists.
• Sleep enough, especially before and after learning.

What about memory games?

Short memory games are a pleasant way to practice holding and recalling information, and some people like having a small daily ritual. A daily session in Esprio mixes memory, logic and attention games in a few minutes. Be realistic about what to expect, though: you get better at the games you practice, and the research on wider benefits is mixed. We look at the evidence in do brain training games work?.

For learning things you actually need to remember, the techniques above remain the best tools: test yourself, space it out, and sleep on it.