How to Improve Your Memory: Top Tips

Try a few of these little helpers and see if you can remember where you set down the cordless phone.

1) Concentrate. The older you get, the longer you need to store something so you can remember it. If you need to remember something for more than a few minutes, concentrate on it for at least 10 seconds to send it into archival brain storage. In addition, some physicians believe large daily doses (more than 500 milligrams) of the nutrient acetylcarnitine (available at nutrition stores) can improve attention spans and stave off age-related memory loss.

2) Take note of what your read. Skim things first, then reread them in their entirety. Underline important phrases and words. Sum up chapters and arguments after you read them. Take a short break every half hour to refresh your mind.

3) Tie words to images. It doesn't really matter if the image is a little weird or the connection is convoluted as long as it works in your own pumpkin head.

4) Break down long numbers. Convert long numbers into a series of short clumps of numbers that you can remember, like your area code, street address, old football number, etc. Use mnemonics. The colors of the light spectrum are ordered ROY G. BIV. In Chicago, the Great Lakes streets run sout in the order S-H-E-O (Superior, Huron, Erie, Ontario).

5) Gesticulate. Some medical researchers actually believe waving your arms in the air can help you remember what was to the tip of your tongue-which must mean Italians are the most unforgetful people on the planet.

4) Get organized. Well-organized people have an easier time recalling information; a tidy mind is easier to search than a cluttered one.

5) Stimulate the grey stuff. Read a newspaper, do a crossword puzzle, or prove Fermat's last theorem-anything but park yourself in front the tube.

6) Use the two-step name program. Studies show that nearly half of people over age 50 can't remember names a mere hour after they have been introduced. If you are perpetually bumping into old what's-her-name at cocktail parties, try this technique. First, after you have been introduced, immediately use the person's name in a statement, "Deborah, I was just telling Fred here what a great portrait that is..." Second, burn the name into your long-term memory by making up a goofy image that you associate with the name. Ms. Reynolds is wearing a suit made of aluminum foil; Mr. Remington is a crack shot with a pistol, and so on. Believe it or not, it works.