Do you do anything to exercise, enhance, or train your memory?

After chemo I had some pretty drastic cognitive and memory impairment. I started with crosswords, (very helpful) and also did logic puzzles. Even things like Where’s Waldo type activities helped with focus and control. I got Games magazine every month, and sometimes just figuring out how to do the things was challenging.

I like crosswords the best, but I still do all those other things from time to time.

Back then, doing those things helped bring me back. I’ll never recover my full mental capabilities, but it’s so much better than my post-chemo fog!

I’m studying French now (again) and meet with a tutor. I’m not sure how much it is helping my cognitive ability but it is sure showing my its slippage.

Edit: “me its”. how apt!

I forget.

Gosh, when I was 19 I worked for Boeing Computer Services. This would have been 1979 to 1981. One of the jobs was to go pull tapes. They were big round cylinders with numbers printed on the end, and they hung up like clothes in a clothes closet. I’d have to go pull tape #587209, for example.
At first I was certain I could remember that number from here to there, where the tapes were stored. I quickly realized I couldn’t, not all the time, especially when I had more than 1 to pull. From then on I wrote them down.
Since then I rarely rely on memory alone, unless I absolutely have too. AND my memory is good.

I’ve started working crossword puzzles because I don’t like them and they drive me nuts. Must be good for my brain, right?

My husband is 65 and he still can’t get it through his head that he will forget. Once we were wrapping Christmas gifts for what seemed like 20 grandkids. He neglected to put a name on one. I pointed it out and he said, “Oh, I’ll remember it!”
I’m like, “No, you won’t.”
He didn’t. It did not turn out well at all. Not at all. One kid wound up with two gifts and another kid with 0. I wanted to cry for her.

My memory is definitely not as good as it used to be. I think part of it is some normal aging, but I think a tremendous amount of it has to do with both stress and lack of focus.

I don’t do any specific exercises for memory, except to say when I know it’s important to remember something that I’m not go to write down, I slow down, say to myself what the thing is, even sometimes out loud, so it is more likely to stick. If I have to remember multiple things I say how many, if I can’t write them down. Knowing the number helps me know if I am missing one.

I do write more down now. I use my phone calendar a lot to remind me of things.

More about focus, I really have to stop, stop thinking about whatever I was obsessing about, stop listening to the TV, and put my phone down, and really listen to what a person is trying to tell me so I can remember it. Studies show the brain can only really do one thing at a time. I think as we get older we have more stuff crowding our brains. Maybe we get more apathetic too anoytva lot of things.

One other thing I realize as I get older is just how much almost everyone has imperfect memories. I think part of the reason I don’t trust my memory as much as when I was younger is because now I accept that memory is fallible.

I tried that Luminosity thing once. I did it for a few weeks. I don’t think it improved my memory at all.

I’ve actually got a terrible memory, so sometimes I try to remember the names of people I’ve worked with. Places I used to go and so on. And I jot them down and file them. I think just trying to get my brain to remember this information is testing and exercising my memory. And in my job, I have to remember a lot of stuff, so I keep notes and I make visual notes – mind maps and the like, to code information in different ways to help me memorise information I want to retain and use again.

Not so much to improve my memory, but to keep my brain active, I’ve tried learning an instrument (unsuccessfully). I try to choose books to read that actually challenge my mind a little rather than picking easy reads all the time.

Other than that, I try to give my brain a rest every now and then. I’m not overly successful at this either. However, I think we overtax our brains and just focusing on one thing or on nothing at all can be a healthy change in terms of brain health. I feel if my brain is less taxed, my memory is better.

No. I try relaxing, and I try to enjoy and accept who I am. I’m under enough pressure to be smarter that I need to let go of being smarter. I’m not to be sure if i have made any diamonds or fruit in my life.

I believe physically exercising, staying in shape, and using your brain helps keep it supple.
Taking a walk and even using this site helps. Reading a question and writing a good answer uses a lot more brainpower than you realize.
My only brain exercise is “forced mindfulness”, e.g., Thinking and saying to myself: “I will put my keys here so I don’t forget them.”

^^The one thing I do almost every day is say to myself, or sometimes out loud, “I unplugged my curling iron.” It’s the one thing I’m a little OCD about (you know, because I don’t want to burn down the house) and if I don’t lock it into my memory I have to drive back home or suffer thinking about it until I get home.

I popped a breaker yesterday because I left my soldering iron plugged in and it melted through the power cord.

Two words: Increased mindfulness.

I can’t remember any other tips.

@LuckyGuy You’re freaking me out. I feel like these things should have timers or auto shut off. I’ve contemplated getting a timer of some sort that I plug into the socket if that exists. These hot hair tools are left in the hands of teenagers and people like me. It’s not good. This is one reason I like difficult to catch on fire countertops in my master bathroom.

Go primitive camping unprepared, and without the option of going someplace to get whatever you forgot. Talk about Jerry-rigging.

@jleslie There is a timer on my iron so you would think they could/should put them on other things.

@chyna I’ve seen irons with that feature. I agree, it seems like a no brainer for curling irons. Forget that I think my current counter is not fire resistant, I also have bits of hairspray in it at any given time, and I wish I could say I keep my counter very clear of miscellaneous stuff, but that is just not the case.

Yes, yes I do & it’s come as a great learning aid to me one which I appreciate greatly & yeah, that’s right…I can’t remember what the hell it was.

@Jeruba Do you do anything to exercise, enhance, or train your memory?

I often copy the question all the way down here so I don’t forget why I came here.

I order particular no in yes:

Jog my memory

Jump to conclusions

Move minds

Rest on my laurels

Exert influence

Manoeuvre my oeuvre

Step on it

Dance around an issue

Hustle and bustle

Dionne Warwick – Walk On By
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AO073fekFfA

I don’t think my memory is as good as it once was especially for names. I keep a daily diary on my computer and it often comes in handy when I am trying to remember things.

I’ve thought about doing that @flutherother. Perhaps it will help me to remember people’s names and so on in the future. I’ve recommended my kids do the same. You think you’ll never forget that person’s name, but in my experience, you can and do.

I am horrible with names. If I take a second to create an association with the name, I do better, but I usually don’t create an association.
But it also depends on the context. We owned a small engine repair shop for 4 years. We still see some of our customers around from time to time. Rick recognizes their faces instantly. I don’t. But then he’ll say, “His name is…Brian Something. He had that Mantis Tiller. ”
Instantly I can pull up the guy’s full name from my memory bank that controlled the book keeping! I can almost tell you exactly how he spent with us on average, too.