Is there any proven method (book, etc) for improving my (not my computers) memory?
I looked on amazon, and there are too many. Some sounded pretty good, but I can’t remember which ones they were. I had a book many years ago, but I kept forgetting where I’d put it. Or did I? 
Sorry. I really would appreciate some advice.
Peace,
mangeorge
“I’ve forgotten where I put my memory book” I love it.
My grandfather once picked up a How To Improve You’re Memory" book at a garage sale. When he got home, my mother pointed out to him that he already had the same book on his book shelf.
Thanks to you, I just now actually tried to find a book by that title.
Thanks, smarty pants! 
Most memory books don’t tell you how to improve your memory, in the sense of your brain working better organically; they teach you mnemonic tricks so you can use improved methods for remembering things. IIRC one such trick used by real memory experts is to memorize an object for every number from 100 to 999. Then you can memorize strings of numbers by chunking together these objects into some sort of story. Frankly I think just memorizing 900 objects is daunting unto itself.
I have a book called “Mind Hacks” that is as good as any for this type of stuff. I believe I got it from Amazon.
I just ordered these two:
The Memory Book: The Classic Guide to Improving Your Memory at Work, at School, and at Play
Super Student: How to Raise Your Grades in 30 Days
I’ll look at “Mind Hacks” too.
Between all those I should be able to do something.
Thanks.
When you want to memorized something, you should associate what you want to memorize with something that you already know. Perhaps that will work for you, it does for me.
There are plenty of resources for learning how to memorize things, but I myself would be interested in learning how to (or doing something to cause myself to be able to) not have things slip my mind so often. As in, forgetting to mail something at work, or forgetting a person’s name, or forgetting to return a library book, that sort of thing. That seems like quite a different skill than that of knowing how to memorize lists.
I’m not sure which kind of memory the OP was talking about, but does anyone know of any resources for improving the kind of memory I just described?
-FrL-
I have problems with both kinds of remembering.
I use my Palm PDA a lot.
Isn’t there a vitamin that’s supposed to help recall? Fish oil?
A resource?
An article?
mangeorge, to improve your memory, you may be interested in the nootropics used to treat dementia. Some of these drugs have been used in patients with Alzheimers etc… for decades and are quite safe. I’ve experimented with quite a few myself. It’s completely legal and you can buy them over the Internet. Generally speaking, there are two related difficulties with taking these drugs. To the extent that the reason the drug has a positive effect on dementia patients is understood, those benefits can be generalized to healthy patients as well. But this leads to our problem: There have been no (few, actually, I’ve got references if you’re interested) studies on these drugs in healthy patients, and many of these drugs have cognitive benefits that you won’t be able to detect unless you are subjecting yourself to tests designed to do just that, such as the Cognitive Drug Research battery. Further, if you do seem to notice an improvement, it’s impossible for you to tell whether it’s due to the placebo effect or the drug.
That said, the first “nootropic” I would try were I you is caffeine combined with sugar, as the combination of the two has cognitive benefits (including secondary memory) not found in either alone. These two links serve as a good starting point for the rest of them.
Having tried them, I stick to caffeine. IANAD.
**Frylock, **here’s one trick for remembering someone’s name. Use it at least a couple of times is your first conversation with them. Make sure you are making eye contact as you do this.
Say you are introduced to a new guy in your department named Bob. You could say something like, “It’s nice to meet you, Bob. I hope you will enjoy working here.” Then when you’re about to end the conversation, you could say something like, “It was nice talking with you, Bob. See you at the staff meeting tomorrow.”
I heard about this trick on the radio quite a number of years ago. It has worked well for me.
Paying attention.
No, seriously, if you don’t give something enough attention to fix it in your long-term memory, you’ll forget it. Dates and times mean little to me, so I have a hard time remembering them without spending a bit of time and effort on recall. I also have a hard time with names, though I’ll remember things about the person (who knows them, personality traits, verbal ticks, etc.) and visuals without any effort at all.
If you want to remember things that you know are difficult for you to recall, you have to pay more attention to them, spend some effort to make them important or memorable, and rehearse them more. Find ways to associate them with things you find meaningful. Find triggers that will help remind you that you have to do whatever minor task it is. Above all, spend a few seconds to bring that item to the forefront of your attention and briefly make it the most important thing in your mind. Just doing that will sometimes be enough.
I read an article a few weeks ago (and of course, I dont remember where) that said that a big part of memory retention was affected by how much sleep a person got.
Get enough sleep every night, and your memory will improve.
Phosphatidylserine, ginkgo biloba, etc.??? Also here is an article and here is another
I jhaven’t had enough sleep in at least 20 years. That could be it.
Nah!
horitical
A man and his wife were telling a friend about the great doctor they were seeing who was helping them with their short-term memory loss, and how helpful he was.
Friend: “That sounds like something I could use help with. What is the doctor’s name?”
Man: “Hmm, let me think. What is that beautiful flower with the long stem, and thorns?”
Friend: “You mean a rose?”
Man: “Yeah, that’s it.” He turns to his wife and asks, “Rose, what was the name of that doctor we are seeing?”