“When is this project due again?”

“What did my boss say to focus on during this presentation?”

“Wait, was my intern’s birthday today or tomorrow?”

It has been found that people remember 10% of what they read, 20% of what they see, and 30% of what they hear. While different scholars have found that this concept may be inaccurate, one basic idea shines through – People don’t remember very much. So what can you do to increase your memory? Maybe try some of these tips, if you can remember them!

1. Become interested in what you’re learning. It is so much easier to learn about stuff you care about instead of trying to advance in a field that you have no desire to learn about. If you can’t become interested, try learning about something else.
2. Leverage your visual and auditory memory. These are the areas where your memory will be most effective, so if you need to remember something, you should say it out loud! In addition, if you can think of a way to link a visual to what you need to remember, your chances of remembering are definitely going to increase.
3. Associate new information with what you already know. Make comparisons, remind yourself of past memories, or link new information to something else.
4. Write out things you need to remember. If you are reading something, try summarizing each page by writing out key facts. It may take longer, but you will definitely remember more!
5. Sleep! Without proper sleep, you won’t be able to remember anything. So do what you have to do in order to get to bed on time.

Written by Kaitlyn Gahagen