Founded in to deepen the understanding of the intersection of well-being, purpose, and performance. EN - US. For Business. These are honest mistakes. When these memory lapses become too frequent, they can negatively affect your work performance, team collaboration skills , and, ultimately, your professional reputation.

Luckily, while external factors can affect memory, you can also learn how to improve your memory by implementing lifestyle changes and testing different strategies. The National Institute on Aging NIA states that memory naturally weakens with age. The ability to remember new information is highest in your 20s, and age-related memory loss becomes more noticeable in your 50s and 60s.

As you get older, age-related changes in the brain impact your executive brain function , which helps you plan, organize, and regulate your thought process. While less common, the NIA states that memory can also deteriorate because of several health conditions, including:.

Emotional conditions like chronic stress , anxiety , and depression. Eating habits, vitamin deficiencies, and diets high in fat and sugar. Mental exhaustion or burnout from personal or professional responsibilities. Distracting environments.

Acute stress from tight deadlines, switching careers , or a toxic relationship. Although you can't stop the aging process, several daily habits can improve your memory and have positive long-term effects on slowing or reversing natural memory problems.

They work your brain out, too. High-intensity interval training HIIT stimulates parts of the brain that control executive functioning and memory , leading to better brain health.

The CDC recommends minutes of moderate physical activity per week or 75 minutes of vigorous exercise split between aerobic and muscle strengthening. Nutrition and mental health are intrinsically linked and profoundly impact your ability to form memories. Studies show that high sugar and fat exposure causes inflammation in areas crucial for memory.

Reducing sugary drinks and high-fat meals in your daily diet can make you more mentally sharp and improve your long-term memory and overall health.

But a consistent nutrient-rich diet helps your body turn food into energy. When your energy levels are more stable, you have the fuel necessary to approach your day with more clarity. And diets high in fruits and vegetables are associated with reduced cognitive decline.

Plan your food strategically to avoid feeling overwhelmed and missing a meal. Meal prepping, a practical cooking course, and identifying healthy replacement foods to improve the quality of your snacking are great places to start.

Flavonoid-rich foods vegetables, fruits, tea have neuroprotective properties. Complex carbohydrates oats, barley, brown rice are full of B vitamins that boost memory functioning.

Sometimes life gets busy, and you feel like you must stay late to meet deadlines. Sleep is integral to memory consolidation.

Slow wave sleep improves declarative memories facts, names, events , and rapid eye movement sleep improves procedural skills and know-how and emotional memories.

As a rule of thumb, experts recommend seven hours of sleep and sleep hygiene routines that promote healthy sleep. When you feel stressed, your brain pumps the body with cortisol , which temporarily blocks your ability to retrieve memories and impairs your declarative memory.

Practice stress management techniques like getting fresh air or organizing your workspace to reduce stress and improve your memory functioning. Mindfulness involves consciously bringing your attention to the present moment. When you practice mindfulness, you set emotional reactivity aside and become fully invested in your surroundings, thoughts, and feelings.

And studies have shown that mindfulness techniques can help you focus your attention and improve your working memory. Excessive alcohol consumption can negatively impact your cognitive functioning. Alcohol affects your ability to form new long-term memories and your ability to access your working memory.

And repeated episodes of excessive binge drinking can damage the hippocampus , producing long-term effects on your cognition. While the occasional drink or glass of wine with dinner is likely fine, avoid frequent excessive drinking to protect your mind and memory.

Social ties are crucial to your brain health. When you interact with others, be it cracking a joke with a coworker or talking up a new client, your brain is engaged and strengthening neural networks.

Over time, socializing pays off. As you get older, strong social ties lessen the likelihood of cognitive decline and dementia , so hit the RSVP button when that next networking event invite pops into your inbox.

Now that you have some lifestyle hacks, here are a few more daily habits and fun mind games to improve your memory abilities at work:. If you struggle to remember names, facts, or numbers, try associating new pieces of information with existing knowledge or creating a story in your head. If your coworker's name is Jamie, imagine them cooking a fragrant fruit jam, jamming out at a concert, or getting stuck in a traffic jam.

These associations might help you retain their name. Write it down: Research shows that writing is more effective than typing when learning new ideas.

Since it takes longer to write something out by hand, your brain must carefully curate the information it focuses on. The same research found that writing verbatim leads to less information recall.

Take notes of words and concepts that stick out to you or you know you must remember, refining your notes later if you like. Group information: Chunking involves organizing your thoughts by breaking down complex information into smaller, logical groups.

To recall the product development life cycle, for example, you can list all the departments it moves through. Make a to-do list: No one can keep all their meetings, deadlines, and tasks in their head. It might seem like keeping the brain active and busy would be the best way to keep it strong, allowing your memory to operate at peak condition continually.

But the truth is that every muscle needs time to rest and heal, and the brain is no exception. This might explain why research has found improved mental performance and memory for those who regularly practice mindfulness meditation. Setting aside time each day to breathe deeply and focus on the here and now can help strengthen your memory for later.

Like other muscles in the body, the brain can be trained. Cognitive training is often used by psychiatrists, speech therapists, psychologists, neuropsychologists, and other therapists to help improve and build cognitive skills.

Research has found that participating in a daily cognitive training program can improve neuropsychological performance, including short-term and working memory. Participants in this particular study engaged in cognitive training exercises similar to those found on Lumosity.

Focused brain and cognition training that include these types of tasks could have the potential to produce similar results. Our minds and bodies are powerful machines capable of all kinds of incredible feats.

But to function optimally, they must be taken care of. This is as true for memory function as it is for heart health. And when you do, you might be surprised to find out exactly how much your mind truly can retain.

A significant body of scientific research indicates that healthy sleep can have a positive, protective effect. Mnemonic devices are techniques a person can use to help them with memory. Chronic stress can affect areas of the brain responsible for forming and recalling memories.

Help is available to help improve your memory and relieve…. One might assume that more documentation, communication, and modes of delivery would improve memory for historical events, but the literature suggests….

Many people have probably heard of the method of loci, but have no idea what it is. Let me paint you a picture: it is. Memory loss can be a natural part of growing older.

But when your memory lapses start affecting your daily life, it may be time to consider consulting…. Domestic Violence Screening Quiz Emotional Type Quiz Loneliness Quiz Parenting Style Quiz Personality Test Relationship Quiz Stress Test What's Your Sleep Like?

Psych Central. Conditions Discover Quizzes Resources. Quiz Symptoms Causes Treatment Find Support. Medically reviewed by Vara Saripalli, Psy. Get moving. Start your day with a boost. Flavor your day with flavonoids. Chew some gum. Know your tools. Breathe in, breathe out. Stretch your brain.

Ayaz M, et al. Flavonoids as prospective neuroprotectants and their therapeutic propensity in aging associated neurological disorders.

The CDC recommends minutes of moderate physical activity per week or 75 minutes of vigorous exercise split between aerobic and muscle strengthening. Nutrition and mental health are intrinsically linked and profoundly impact your ability to form memories.

Studies show that high sugar and fat exposure causes inflammation in areas crucial for memory. Reducing sugary drinks and high-fat meals in your daily diet can make you more mentally sharp and improve your long-term memory and overall health. But a consistent nutrient-rich diet helps your body turn food into energy.

When your energy levels are more stable, you have the fuel necessary to approach your day with more clarity. And diets high in fruits and vegetables are associated with reduced cognitive decline. Plan your food strategically to avoid feeling overwhelmed and missing a meal. Meal prepping, a practical cooking course, and identifying healthy replacement foods to improve the quality of your snacking are great places to start.

Flavonoid-rich foods vegetables, fruits, tea have neuroprotective properties. Complex carbohydrates oats, barley, brown rice are full of B vitamins that boost memory functioning.

Sometimes life gets busy, and you feel like you must stay late to meet deadlines. Sleep is integral to memory consolidation. Slow wave sleep improves declarative memories facts, names, events , and rapid eye movement sleep improves procedural skills and know-how and emotional memories.

As a rule of thumb, experts recommend seven hours of sleep and sleep hygiene routines that promote healthy sleep. When you feel stressed, your brain pumps the body with cortisol , which temporarily blocks your ability to retrieve memories and impairs your declarative memory.

Practice stress management techniques like getting fresh air or organizing your workspace to reduce stress and improve your memory functioning. Mindfulness involves consciously bringing your attention to the present moment.

When you practice mindfulness, you set emotional reactivity aside and become fully invested in your surroundings, thoughts, and feelings. And studies have shown that mindfulness techniques can help you focus your attention and improve your working memory. Excessive alcohol consumption can negatively impact your cognitive functioning.

Alcohol affects your ability to form new long-term memories and your ability to access your working memory.

And repeated episodes of excessive binge drinking can damage the hippocampus , producing long-term effects on your cognition. While the occasional drink or glass of wine with dinner is likely fine, avoid frequent excessive drinking to protect your mind and memory.

Social ties are crucial to your brain health. When you interact with others, be it cracking a joke with a coworker or talking up a new client, your brain is engaged and strengthening neural networks.

Over time, socializing pays off. As you get older, strong social ties lessen the likelihood of cognitive decline and dementia , so hit the RSVP button when that next networking event invite pops into your inbox. Now that you have some lifestyle hacks, here are a few more daily habits and fun mind games to improve your memory abilities at work:.

If you struggle to remember names, facts, or numbers, try associating new pieces of information with existing knowledge or creating a story in your head. If your coworker's name is Jamie, imagine them cooking a fragrant fruit jam, jamming out at a concert, or getting stuck in a traffic jam.

These associations might help you retain their name. Write it down: Research shows that writing is more effective than typing when learning new ideas. Since it takes longer to write something out by hand, your brain must carefully curate the information it focuses on.

The same research found that writing verbatim leads to less information recall. Take notes of words and concepts that stick out to you or you know you must remember, refining your notes later if you like. Group information: Chunking involves organizing your thoughts by breaking down complex information into smaller, logical groups.

To recall the product development life cycle, for example, you can list all the departments it moves through. Even then, we should be careful not to exert ourselves too hard as we daydream.

In one study , for instance, participants were asked to imagine a past or future event during their break, which appeared to reduce their later recall of the newly learnt material.

So it may be safest to avoid any concerted mental effort during our down time. The exact mechanism is still unknown, though some clues come from a growing understanding of memory formation.

It is now well accepted that once memories are initially encoded, they pass through a period of consolidation that cements them in long-term storage. This was once thought to happen primarily during sleep, with heightened communication between the hippocampus — where memories are first formed — and the cortex, a process that may build and strengthen the new neural connections that are necessary for later recall.

The brain might use downtime to cement what it has recently learnt Credit: Getty Images. This heightened nocturnal activity may be the reason that we often learn things better just before bed.

In the study, participants were first asked to memorise pairs of pictures — matching a face to an object or scene — and then allowed to lie back and let their minds wander for a short period. Sure enough, she found increased communication between the hippocampus and areas of the visual cortex during their rest.

Crucially, people who showed a greater increase in connectivity between these areas were the ones who remembered more of the task, she says. Perhaps the brain takes any potential down time to cement what it has recently learnt — and reducing extra stimulation at this time may ease that process.

Other psychologists are excited about the research. Scheduling regular periods of rest could help us all hold onto new memories Credit: Getty Images. Practically speaking, he points out that it may be difficult to schedule enough periods of rest to increase their overall daily recall.

But he thinks it could still be valuable to help a patient learn important new information — such as learning the name and face of a new carer. Thomas Baguley at Nottingham Trent University in the UK is also cautiously optimistic. Beyond the clinical benefits for these patients, Baguley and Horner both agree that scheduling regular periods of rest, without distraction, could help us all hold onto new material a little more firmly.

This is why false memories can be created with well-intentioned lines of questioning. A recent meta-analysis was conducted on stress studies, meaning that researchers examined that many independent studies on stress and memory to determine what the major findings were.

There is ample evidence that stress affects memory, and these studies just lent more support for that research:  . There are several things you can do to improve your memory when stressed. Fortunately, these techniques also help manage stress.

One of the most important things you can do is to practice personal self-care : get enough sleep, eat a healthy diet, and manage stress. Poor sleep, high stress, and other physical problems can affect memory as well as contribute to the stress that impedes memory formation and retrieval.

There are other important strategies you can use as well. Here are some research-backed strategies you can use:. Stress impacts so much of our lives, and although you can't always eliminate that stress entirely, you can learn to manage it in a way that will help support self-improvement in many areas of your life, including an improved memory.

Loftus EF. Planting misinformation in the human mind: a year investigation of the malleability of memory. Learn Mem.

Shields GS, Sazma MA, Mccullough AM, Yonelinas AP. The effects of acute stress on episodic memory: A meta-analysis and integrative review. Psychol Bull. Jonsdottir IH, Nordlund A, Ellbin S, et al. Working memory and attention are still impaired after three years in patients with stress-related exhaustion.

Scand J Psychol. Page JW, Asken M, Zwemer CF, et al. Brief mental skills training improves memory and performance in high stress police cadet training. J Police Crim Psych. Eskilsson T, Slunga järvholm L, Malmberg gavelin H, Stigsdotter neely A, Boraxbekk CJ. Aerobic training for improved memory in patients with stress-related exhaustion: a randomized controlled trial.

BMC Psychiatry. Brisbon NM, Lachman ME. Dispositional mindfulness and memory problems: the role of perceived stress and sleep quality.