Best practices to improve short term memory

There are several strategies you can use to improve your short-term memory:

1. Rehearsal: Repeat the information you are trying to remember over and over. This method works well for remembering phone numbers or license plate numbers.

2. Chunking: Break the information into smaller, easier-to-remember chunks. For example, instead of trying to remember a 10-digit phone number as one long string of numbers, break it into three groups of three digits and one group of four digits.

3. Mnemonic devices: Use a mnemonic device, such as an acronym or rhyme, to help you remember the information. For example, to remember the order of the planets in our solar system, use the phrase “My Very Eager Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas” (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto – though Pluto is no longer considered a planet).

4. Visualization: Create a mental image of the information you are trying to remember. For example, if you need to remember a list of items to buy at the grocery store, visualize each item in your mind and associate it with something you will see at the store.

5. Pay attention: In order to remember something, you need to be paying attention to it in the first place. Focus on the information and eliminate distractions.

6. Practice: Like anything else, the more you practice using these strategies, the better you will become at remembering information in the short-term.