5 Science-Proven Ways to Improve Your Memory
Source | LinkedIn | John Boitnott | See my work at jboitnott.com – Writer at Entrepreneur Media, Inc.com and Readwrite.com
From people’s names to sales data, there’s a lot of information entrepreneurs need to be able to remember at any given moment. Here’s how to improve your memory and retain more information.
Memory creation and management is a complex process where the human brain collects, stores and recalls information that we need for various tasks. Yet these memories also play a more human role by helping you recognize and remember important people and special occasions.
Some cognitive conditions, such as dementia, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, rob people of the brain’s memory function. Yet even without these terrible diseases, busy entrepreneurs can risk losing stored memories and the ability to form and retain new ones. Our hectic lifestyles often mean little sleep which can hurt memory function.
Rather than let our ability to store and recall memories become dulled, we can take a proactive approach. Fortunately, science gives us hope with ways to sharpen this essential neurological tool. Here are five you should incorporate into your routine.
1. Play video games and brain-training apps
This scientific recommendation may make you laugh, especially if your parents told you to stop playing so many video games when you were younger. But, a 2017 study in the journal Behavioral Brain Research concluded that a wide range of video games actually improve the functioning of various memory-associated regions in the brain. The research cited improvements in areas like semantic memory, which involves your overall ability to recall knowledge. While you don’t want to spend hours and hours every day playing video games if you’re trying to run a company, it’s a good regular pastime to exercise your brain.