How To Remember Something You Forgot: [21 Proven Tips]

In this new article you’ll learn how to remember something you forgot.

Do you always forget your homework and even what the tasks are and when you should do them? Are you struggling to remember the names of people? Do you think you have a bad memory?

This article will teach you techniques about how to remember things you forgot and strategies to prevent the escape of critical information.

How To Remember Something You Forgot:

1. Close your eyes.

Recent research suggests that closing your eyes improves your ability to recall information. This can happen because it eliminates potential interference and you focus better on memories and their details.

2. Reconstruct the situation

Recreate the environment you were in when you first thought about the thing you are missing now, when you learned this information, or when you last remember that you have an object that you lost.

When you have a great idea in the shower, this idea is recorded in the brain along with the context or environment (in this case in the shower). This idea is related to the memory of the shower, the smell of the shampoo, the sound of flowing water and the feeling of leaving it on your skin.

Experiencing this experience can help you remember forgotten information.

3. Calm down.

Close your eyes, take a few deep, relaxed breaths. Anxiety about not being able to remember something can stop you from doing it. Try to calm down, because “bad” memory, frustration and panic do nothing but turn mental energy away from the goal.

In some cases, in order to calm down, you have to leave and do something else. Take a five-minute break, talk to someone, watch TV or work on another project.

4. Stop and listen.

The reason you forget the names is not because you are “forgetful”, but because you didn’t listen well.

You may be so excited or upset when you meet someone, or so worried that you have to make a good impression that you don’t let your brain process important information such as a person’s name in front of you.

Put aside all other thoughts, look straight at the person, look into their eyes and listen to them. Remembering your name should be your priority.

5. Create a visual association.

Our brain is great at storing visual information, so creating a connection between a person’s name and surname will make it much easier to remember.

For example, if you meet a person named Kate with dark blue eyes, see the clear sky of this color.

6. Repeat the name of the person at least twice.

Repeating helps to improve this information in memory because it strengthens neural connections in the brain.

When a person gives you their name, repeat it, confirming that they have understood it correctly. This can be particularly useful for names that are difficult to pronounce.

Repeat the name of the person, saying “Nice to meet you, Michael”. When you leave, repeat the name of the person in your head.

7. Create unusual associations.

Have you ever heard someone tell you that you have a thread on your finger so you won’t forget anything? The idea behind this method is that the thread around the finger is so strange that it helps to remember the related information.

You can create all kinds of associations, the stranger the better. If you need to do something on your computer, put something unusual on your keyboard (like a toy ship or a banana), so be sure to pay your bills when using the Internet and not watch photos of your lovely kittens.

SEE ALSO: How To Increase Concentration Power When Studying or Working

8. Save the reminder on your smartphone .

As soon as you make an appointment with your doctor, take the phone and sign up for the calendar. Almost all modern mobile phones allow you to set up an alarm reminder for an upcoming appointment, five minutes, an hour, one day or even a week in advance.

The secret is to place a reminder “as soon as” you make an appointment (or find out about someone’s birthday).

You can also set recurring reminders. If you need to take your younger sister after tennis practice every Tuesday, you can set up a warning that will be issued weekly.

9. Repeat.

If you go to the room to get the cure, quietly recite the “cure” when you get to the room. Repeating a thought or idea causes it to remain active in short-term memory (which usually stores information for only 10-15 seconds).

This will help you avoid the problem of entering the room and ask yourself, “What have I come to do?

The more you access or “use” memory, the more likely it is that it will end up in long-term memory that can store information indefinitely.

Even singing about what you have to do can help you remember. Choose a simple theme or one of your favourite songs and sing that you’re taking the cure now.

10. Create a learning environment similar to the one in which you will need to remember information.

If you are studying for an examination that takes place in a quiet room where the only sound is ticking a clock, you will be able to remember the information better on the day of the examination if you are studying in a similar environment (1), such as a library or classroom dedicated to the examination.

Try not to study on the couch or sit on the bed, as you will probably take a test in front of your desk.

11. Write a sticky note and place it in a place you often see.

Do you always forget your keys? Write “keys” on the sticky note and place it right in the middle of the front door.

Try this method if you want to do something on your computer. When you are in front of the screen, you are distracted by so much that you can easily forget about your commitments.

Place a sticky note on the monitor and then slide it to the side while you work so you don’t lose focus.

12. Look for new experiences.

The more often you do something, the less difficult it becomes. If you can decorate a cake without even thinking about it, you work very little on your brain. In order to train and improve your mental abilities, you need to have more challenges.

Make sure you are really interested in new activities. Pretending to be interested, your brain will not be tested.

13. Make your body work with aerobic exercises.

Go, run, jump on the trampoline; do any exercises that can speed up your heart rate, and your brain will also be in good shape. One of the reasons for this is that sport increases the supply of nutrient-rich oxygen to the brain, helping it work better.

Studies have shown that the effect of physical activity on the brain is cumulative. This means that if you train regularly, you will achieve better results than you do from time to time.

14. Talk to people.

People usually think about activities that can keep the brain in good shape, imagine sudoku or crosswords, but these “brain exercises” are less effective at testing our minds than real conversation.

Dialogue forces you to listen, to assimilate and to process information in order to be able to formulate a response.

15. Use mnemonic techniques to store information.

These tricks are used to sort information into sentences, images or words that are easy to remember.

There are countless ways to invent mnemonic devices. Try to invent rhymes, create acronyms or images that are easy to remember.

16. Split your science sessions.

Instead of one long session that can put a strain on your brain, plan your sessions with Ultradian Rhythm.

SEE ALSO: How To Study More Effectively: 34 [Awesome] Ways for Lasting Success

17. Try to break down the information.

It is easier to remember information in small groups than in one long sequence.

Identify the most obvious similarities in the information you are trying to remember, such as an important date or place, and then sort the rest of the data in this category.

18. Summarize each paragraph in the margin of the textbook.

Reading information alone is not always enough, you also need to understand it. To write a summary, you need to think about what you have just read, get the most important information and learn it again.

When you have finished reading, try to look at the topic from a broader perspective and then continue narrowing the field until you have studied the most important lessons, topics and facts to keep in mind.

If you prefer not to write anything in your textbook, summarize each paragraph in your notebook. You can even tear the page apart and put it in your pocket so you can study it wherever you are.

19. Go to sleep.

Our brain encodes information (or memories from forms) when we’re awake and we’re vulnerable to all kinds of interference. Until the mind transforms this data into long-term memory (2), daily distraction can lead to forgetfulness.

Sleep is the ideal environment for brain surgery and the transformation of new memories into long term stored information.

A nap between the research session and the next is a great way for the brain to absorb what you have just learned.

20. Create a mental image that… it will explode.

If you always forget where you put your keys, try this trick: the next time you leave them somewhere, notice where you put them and then imagine they explode.

This trick uses the brain’s ability to store a lot of visual information.

I want to thank you for taking the time to read my article about how to remember something you forgot. I sincerely hope its contents have been a good help to you.

Przemkas Mosky started Perfect 24 Hours in 2017. He is a Personal Productivity Specialist, blogger and entrepreneur. He also works as a coach assisting people to increase their motivation, social skills or leadership abilities. Read more here