6 Memory Tricks That Sharpen Your Recall Fast (Try Sniffing an Orange!)

It’s frustrating when your memory fails you, especially during daily activities when you need it most, like remembering your grocery list or a new person’s name. The good news? These little blips often aren’t a cause for worry, and they don’t always signal memory loss or Alzheimer’s disease. And research shows that simple memory tricks can help with those lapses. Keep reading to see the easy memory techniques that you can start using today. 

6 memory tricks that sharpen your recall fast

Practicing a few of these easy techniques can help make minor memory problems a thing of the past.  

Repeat a name four times

Next time you meet someone new, repeat their name four times over the next week and you may remember it forever. The memory trick is a spin on a “spaced learning” method outlined in a University of California review. Researchers explain that vocalizing a person’s name over spaced intervals (such as right after learning it, 15 to 20 minutes later, one day later and a week later) pushes it from your short- to long-term memory banks. 

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Tip: Create a “names” list in your phone to discreetly jot down new names as you meet people, then use it as a handy review guide.   

Wellness

Stressed? These Quick Tricks Calm Tension in 5 Minutes or Less

Stress happens.

Smell an orange

Ever notice it’s even harder to find your keys when you’re worried about running late? Stress shuts down your brain’s prefrontal cortex, the area of the brain that helps control your attention, blocking your short-term memory. 

The fix: Scratch the skin of an orange and take a deep sniff when you’re feeling flustered by a memory slip. It may sound strange, but doing so switches off 100 stress genes, suggests Japanese research. And disrupting your stress-triggered memory blip may help reboot your brain, putting that lost memory back in easy reach. 

Use bright light

Turn up the lights or sit by a sunny window while you’re learning the rules of a new board game or researching the best air-fryer cooking tips and you’ll boost your ability to retain new information. Michigan State University research suggests brighter light improves processing in the brain region responsible for learning and memory. 

Drink two cups of coffee

Starting your morning with some coffee may improve your memory for 24 hours, suggests Johns Hopkins research. Credit goes to the double brew’s just-right levels of caffeine (200 mg), which fine-tunes processing in the hippocampus, the brain’s memory switchboard. This trick enhances memory formation and helps create memories that stick.

Tip: Not a fan of coffee? Try snacking on 2 tsp. of antioxidant-rich peanuts daily. These protect brain cells from damage and cut the risk of memory complaints up to 60 percent, suggests an Australian study. 

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Ask easy questions

Guinness Record holder for memory, Dave Farrow, shares a trick he developed to remember where you put something but forgot where. “After a lot research, I learned questions tend to focus the brain.” 

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So instead of asking yourself what you don’t know—like where you left your keys—ask yourself questions you do know about the missing item. For example, what color are my keys? What kind of key chain do I have? How many keys are on the ring? 

“The answer is what I call a shadow memory,” he explains. “Essentially, recalling information that you know will trigger the foggy information and bring it top of mind. This memory technique cures the mental block.”

Read books in print

If you often find yourself struggling to recall details of the novel you read during your book club meetings, try reading books. Reading a book, newspaper or magazine in print rather than digitally boosts your ability to remember what you read. A University of Oregon study found that people recalled significantly more from a physical paper than from reading the exact same story online. Print helps avoid online distractions like links that break your focus and encourage your brain to skim the text.